


Paint It Black

by nanianela



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Anthropomorphic, Gen, Human Impala, Human!Impala - Freeform, Humor, Ianpala | Ian Somerhalder as the Impala, M/M, Personification
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-09
Updated: 2013-10-29
Packaged: 2017-12-28 21:21:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 39,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/996840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nanianela/pseuds/nanianela
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean finds his car missing, and a leather-jacket-donning human sleeping in her parking space. A sharp-jawed, scruffy, low-voiced DUDE. And Baby's meant to be a CHICK, right? Baby struggles to learn how to be human, and not embarrass his boys in public with phrases like 'inside' me. He might also tie up a few loose ends that John never got to, like Dean's hots for a certain angel. Really, Gabriel? This is your idea of a prank? Because it's working. Gen Ian!pala, Destiel. Completed :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The red and blue glow from the sign of this particular motel had been shining in his face all damn night. Not to mention that stupid ass buzzing that wouldn't ever end. _All night_. No wonder this particular room had run extra cheap. As far as Dean knew, his middle name was "No Sleep."

Dean 'No Sleep' Winchester.

Sounds about right.

He let out a groan and rolled over in his bed. The shitty mattress creaked, and somehow Dean had gotten his legs all tangled in the scratchy yellow blanket that might have been soft twenty years ago, but basically felt like the abrasive side of a sponge now.

He breathed in and smelled the god-awful scent he was much too familiar with, the scent of a cheap motel room; the ghost of a cigarette smoked in here a week ago, no doubt as some sleazy man smoked it next to a hooker, and the cloying scent of cheap soap that was used to cover it up. And to top it all off, the overlaying scent of dirty dog.  _How pleasant._

"Sammy," Dean groaned, his voice rough with sleep. "Hey, you up?" The eldest Winchester ran his hands through his hair and scrubbed his face in his palms, feeling his stubble scratching. Dammit, he needed a shave.

"Shut up." Sam shot back irritably, taking a pillow and smashing it over his ears.

"Fine. I'm pickin' up breakfast for you." Dean swung his legs to the side of the bed with a creak and scooted off, stood up and stretched, locking his fingers together and reaching skyward, moving his arms from side to side and cracking his back, letting out a satisfied moan as he heard the pop in his spine. He dropped his arms and itched his ass through his plaid boxers as he started walking to his duffle with his clothes.

He pulled on nicely worn jeans and shrugged on his brown leather jacket over his black and red ACDC shirt he'd worn as pajamas. Maybe he'd head down to the Stop 'N Shop, pick up two coffees for himself and Sam, a few donuts and a egg sandwich (whole wheat bread like Sam liked, the fuckin' pansy) and come back. Hopefully his grumpy little brother wouldn't be so irritated by then.

The keys jingled as he snatched them up from on top of the peeling mini-fridge. He pulled open the door and stepped outside into the crisp morning air, the chill immediately waking him up as he felt himself getting more alert already. Maybe he wouldn't even need that cup 'a joe today.

He whistled and held the key between his fingers, getting ready to jam it into the driver's side keyhole and wrench open the door. (Automatic button click keys were just another reason Dean  _would_  punch someone in the face. Like the world needs us to be any more lazy.)

He stopped short. He'd been just going through the motions, muscle memory and all that jazz. And now that he looked- his car was  _gone_. Just.. fucking  _gone_. The sharp silver line of the key was jabbed into absolutely nothing.

_Where the hell is my car?_ Dean began to feel panicked as blood pounded in his ears.

Then, he heard a  _moan._

_What in the hell?_  Dean looked down at the parking spot at the source of the noise.

There was a guy there.

Lying there on his side, the man let out another little moan an rolled onto his stomach, an ear pressed to the cracked, sun-bleached asphalt. Dean saw his profile; he had pale skin and a sharp, strong-looking nose, dark and thick eyebrows to match his heavy black stubble. His jawbone was so sharp you could cut cheese with it.

Dean whipped out his handgun and cocked it, feeling his panic quickly manifest itself into anger.

"Who are you, and what the hell have you done with my car?" Dean demanded, his voice so low and rumbly one might consider it a growl.

The man, who was wearing a shiny black leather jacket and black denim pants and black combat boots like he just came from the friggin' army, lifted his head just a little from the asphalt and his pale blue eyes slid to the barrel of the gun. He finally twisted around clumsily, squinting and shielding his face from the harsh glow of that damn motel sign in the barely-sunrise of dawn. One side of his face had asphalt grits pressed to his pale cheek.

The leather-jacket-donning human squinted at Dean. He rubbed the little black grits from his cheek slowly with the back of his hand, Dean's gun tracing the movement of his arm as Dean held his whole body tensed, the guy rubbed his eyes, and squinted again. Finally, he licked his parched lips and spoke up unsurely.

"Dean?"

His voice was low and rumbly, and kind of gritty, underlaying pops of voice from the back of his throat. "Holy shit.  _Dean_."

Dean tensed and backed away. "How the fuck do you know my name?!" Dean demanded, shaking the gun once to show the guy he meant business.

The mysterious man sat upright, his long legs stretched out in front of him as he planted one open palm on the dirty road and the other hand ran through his pitch shock of dark tousled hair.

"Dude.  _Hair_." He seemed astounded, running his hand through the unruly black locks once again, almost as if he were in disbelief. "Well. I'll be damned."

Dean realized that guy had probably flown the cuckoo's nest, and then crash landed in this parking spot. But he still didn't know how this guy knew his name or know the stranger's name. He still didn't even know where his car was, dammit.

"Tell me who you are. Then, you're gonna tell me where my car is." Dean full-on growled this time, coming much too close and pointing the gun just inches away from the guy's head of dark hair.

"Whoa, whoa." Leather-jacket man threw up his hands, pale palms exposed in innocence, wearily looking down the dark barrel of that gun once again. "No need to get all gunsy with me, Sundance. Put that thing away before you shoot someone's eye out. And we all know who's eye that would be."

Dean set his mouth in a line and stubbornly refused to take the gun away. "Why are you sleeping in a parking space?" He hoped maybe he'd get an answer this time.

The guy shrugged facetiously, touching his head gingerly with two fingers. "No friggin' idea. Your guess is as good as mine, brother. I have a killer headache, though, if that helps."

Dean frowned, crouching down and finally letting the gun dangle in his palm as he squatted in front of the guy. "What's your name? And no fucking around this time and avoiding the question."

"I don't know." The man answered, screwing up his face and squeezing his temples. "Ah. Fuck."

Dean growled again and nudged the cold metal of the gun onto the guy's arm. "Spill. Or I spill  _you_  all over this goddamn pavement."

"Oh, god, I'm shaking in my boots." The guy shot back snarkily, his voice dripping with sarcasm, rubbing his temples and screwing up his face. "And I  _told_  you. I don't know."

"Then what do other people call you?" Dean said through gritted teeth. His patience was seriously wearing thin. 

"Are we talking model number or...?" The guy began, confused, and trailed off, and Dean looked pissed. The guy reached up and ran his fingers through his hair again. "Uh...maybe K-A-Z two-Y-five? Or.." He kept talking as Dean shot him a death glare. "C-N-K eighty Q-three? No? Dude, c'mon. I don't know what you're looking for here."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Don't get smart with me, buddy."

The man sighed. "Look. I know you enough to know this is going to grind your gears. You don't have to trust me. I don't expect you to trust me. And I don't really expect you to believe me either."

Dean huffed out a frusterated, cranky puff of air. "Try me."

The man furrowed his heavy brows, his grey-blue eyes still squinting from that light of the damn bright neon sign that screamed 'MOTEL', and had this expression on his face like he really, really wished he had an easier way to say this.

"Well, Dean," He huffed out, digging the palms of his hands into his eyes and rubbing, finally letting his hands fall with a faint smack onto his thighs. "You and your brother call me 'Baby'." 


	2. Chapter 2

"Okay. Who the hell are you working for?" Dean did not look amused. "And nice outfit. It's  _convincing_." His voice was dripping with sarcasm."Too bad they didn't hire a friggin' chick like they should have to make me believe it. Who was it? Crowley?"

Dean scowled. He hated it when creatures messed with him like this. And now they were picking on his car too? Maybe they were just getting creative. They'd already dug around everywhere else.

Baby dug the palms of his hands into his eyes and rubbed. "Ah. Dude, I seriously have a killer headache right now. Just keep it down."

He lay back down and rolled over on his stomach again. "Maybe if I lay here long enough and take a little nap I'll wake up and be a car again." He grumbled in his deep voice, letting out a little frustrated sigh.

Dean watched in disbelief as the leather-jacket-donning man slipped his lids over his eyes and let out a small sigh, flat on his stomach as his cheek was pressed to the asphalt again. A few seconds passed and Baby tried to adjust to get a little more comfortable on the rock-hard ground.

He shuffled around. He stayed. He shuffled again.

"Annnnndddd nope." Baby sighed, climbing once again to a sitting position. "Wow. This sucks."

Before Dean could make another snide remark, they both heard the motel door room creak open. Sam was standing there, his long hairy legs peeking out from his plaid boxers, and in his night shirt he looked a lot like an overgrown kid. He rubbed his eye."Dean? It's like five in the morning. Who the hell is that?" Sam stepped out and picked his way gingerly over the concrete with his bare feet. "What the.."

Baby tried to smile, his eyes squinting as his headache pulsed, and gave Sam a little half-wave. "Hey Sammy."

"No one calls him that but _me_." Dean snarled, impacting his heel with the man's shoulder and pinning him down under his boot. Baby let out a wheeze and then a small moan, he shut his eyes and his head lolled to the side.

"Dean, god-fucking-dammit, I didn't  _ask_  for this!" Baby moaned, clutching at his stomach that he'd gotten the wind knocked out of.

Sam crossed his arms and stood by Dean. "Dean. You have some explaining to do."

Dean made a frustrated noise in the back of his throat. "I came out here this morning and Baby was gone and this fucker was sleeping in her spot."

Baby touched his head again, then his pale grey eyes widened. "Shit. Dean, I think I'm gonna spew." He clamped his hand over his mouth.

"What?" Dean asked, and jumped back to not get it on him as Baby, on all fours, curled his back and retched, yellowish-clear liquid spurting out of his mouth and hitting the pavement. At first, Dean thought it was bile, but upon smelling the acrid and unmistakeable scent of petrol, he realized it wasn't.

Baby retched again, this time it wasn't quite liquid and the black, tarry stuff pulled from his lips with a thick, gluey texture and drooped to the ground. Oil?

Baby moaned and dragged the back of his hand across his mouth. His eyelids fluttered closed. "Oh, great creator of Model-T..."

To Dean's surprise, Sam rushed over to the guy's aid, holding up his shoulders as he looked like he was going to fall over.

"Hey, man. You okay?" Sam asked, and Baby hesitated but nodded. "I feel a little better now."

" _Sam_!" Dean was pissed now. "You're helping him? We don't even know who the hell he is!"

"It's Baby, Dean, obviously!" Sam shot back, helping the guy to his feet and Sam looped his arm around the black leather shoulders, helping him stay upright. The man stood around Dean's height, if not a few inches shorter. "He just threw up oil and gasoline, Dean! That's not something you can  _fake_!"

Baby swayed a little and Sam helped steady him, planting an open palm on his chest. Baby's eyes opened just a peek. "You okay?" Sam asked again, and the guy nodded.

"Just- not used to only having two tires on the ground, you know." Baby steadied himself. "It's pretty damn weird."

Dean indicated to the guy and looked beyond frustrated. "Baby's a  _chick_! And he's...he's a  _dude_ , Sam!"

"So?" Sam shot out. "It's not the weirdest thing that's happened to us. We encountered a suicidal freaking teddy bear! And I got turned into a car once, why can't it be the other way around? He needs help, Dean!"

Baby's face was a little pale, beads of sweat were exuding from his nose and cheeks already. "Don't feel good." Baby mumbled, tipping over and retching again, this time more gasoline dribbled from his mouth to the concrete. The scent was sharp in Dean's nose, and he wasn't quite sure how a human  _could_  fake that.

"He must be having some trouble adjusting to his new body," Sam spoke up, finally letting go of Baby's shoulders as Baby had his hands on his knees, taking in small pants of breath. The smell of gasoline overwhelmed the air.

"How full was the tank when you parked it last night?" Sam had that typical puppy-faced expression on, as Baby coughed wetly into his fist and wiped his mouth once again with a disgustingly loud snort."I think...half tank, maybe?" Dean scratched the back of his head, thinking.

Then it hit him again. " _Sam_! Wait, Sam, dammit!" He crossed his hands in front of his chest and quickly sliced them through the air in a sharp 'no' gesture.

"This whole situation isn't adding up! How did this happen? We're not even sure this is Baby, dammit!" He indicated to Baby, who was looking a little worse for wear, his hair damp and now sticking to his pale forehead.

"What do you want me to do, Dean?" The car sighed wearily, his eyes already glassy. "I don't fuckin' like this  _either_ , man!"

"Who did this to you, then?" Dean shot out, strangely angry. Now he was hungry for breakfast and didn't even have a car.

And why the fuck was his very sexy car  _not_  an equally sexy  _chick_? This was just like having a very male siren. What a friggin' let down.

Baby shrugged wearly. "I don't-" He rushed to clamp his hands in front of his mouth, and Sam led him back into the motel room, despite Dean's protests, and gave him a very Sam-like bitchface as he led the man inside with a gentle hand on his back.


	3. Chapter 3

Sam hated that Dean was being such a douchebag. I mean, his car turning into a human, it was his dream, right? Sam waited on a little stool in the bathroom as Baby gripped the edges of the toilet and got rid of all the poison in his newly human system.

"You know, I thought 'inside' would be way more impressive." Baby huffed out a sad excuse for a laugh and spat the oil from his mouth.

"I've never been in a house before. Or I guess anywhere with walls except for a garage. I thought this 'inside' that you guys always spent all your time would be..I don't know, cooler." Baby was trying to sound okay, but his voice was still a little sickly.

"Yeah, well, sorry to disappoint." Sam huffed out a laugh. "And trust me, this isn't the best room you'll ever be in. It's a pretty shitty motel, actually."

Baby retched and more dark oil pulled like glue from his lips, plopping into the water in the bowl.

He groaned and rested his cheek on the porcelain, looking up at Sam with surprisingly innocent blue eyes despite the wolfishness of his eyebrows.

"I know, man. I'm sorry." Sam spoke up quietly. "We're getting you to the doctor's as soon as you stop blowing chunks. And as soon as Dean figures out how to get another car."

Baby spat the disgusting taste from his mouth and looked up at Sam again. "I'm sorry, Sammy. I wish I could still have you and Dean ride me." He said it like there was nothing abnormal with the phrase at all.

"Uh..." Sam started. "Maybe..phrase that a little differently? Just because, well, people in public might get the wrong idea."

Baby looked embarrassed. "Oh. Sorry." He looked away. "You know what I meant, though. I wish I was still your car. I didn't mean for this to happen. I still don't know  _what_  happened."

Sam's eyebrows tipped upward a little in sympathy. "I believe you. Any idea as to what did it?"

Baby shrugged, straightening his back a little and resting his elbows on the toilet lid, curling his fingers behind the nape of his neck."I dunno. Gabriel, maybe."

Sam almost felt a little weirded out that this guy who looked like a total stranger must have known so much about him. Baby gripped his hair with one palm cradling his face, still looking at Sam.

"I was there, Sam." He started, his voice gentle. "For when Gabriel messed with you all those Tuesdays." His voice was low and rumbly, but strangely comforting.

Sam's face went a little pale at the memory. He didn't quite know what to say. He swallowed. "You..were?"

"You know, I really hope it isn't Gabriel who made me into..this." Baby pressed his lips together in a line, blinking and flicking his eyes up to meet Sam's again. "I don't want to see you go through that kind of thing again. You or Dean."

Sam flashed him a tiny smile. "Thanks." He still felt a little strange looking at this guy. It had  _always_  been him and Dean. Even with John there, he never felt as close with him as he did with Dean. And this guy...Sam still was having a little trouble wrapping his head around how much this guy must have known about him. He was like another brother, one who's been there the whole time, just not actually  _there_  there.

"I don't think I'm gonna be sick anymore." Baby spoke up, clambering to his feet, straightening up and stretching, his fingers interlaced and above his head as he wiggled his back a little, just like Dean did every morning. Sam smiled a little at the similarity and also stood up, stepping out of the bathroom and waiting as Baby washed his mouth out in the sink like Sam had told him to.

Dean shot him a green-eyed glare as Sam closed the door softly behind him. "How is he? Did he braid your hair as you guys talked about  _feelings_  and how you guys are going to be bros for life?" He snorted cynically. "You realize he could be playing us, Sam? Pulling the long con? We might have to  _kill_  him in the end. He could be  _anything_ , dammit."

"I know that, Dean." Sam spoke up, the thought had been in the back of his mind, but he didn't want to think about it. "Did you call a cab to take us out to the hospital? Get him checked out?"

Dean was frowning. "Yeah, I got it. Maybe we'll start getting some answers there." He shoved his hands into his denim pockets and shifted his weight from foot to foot, what he did whenever he felt unsure. "Hey, Bay- uh,  _Impala_! Hurry up in there!"

* * *

"Well," The nurse said, a baffled look on her face as she pointed out the X-rays to Sam and Dean. "I must say I've never seen anything like this."

"Yeah, never heard that before." Dean muttered under his breath. He cleared his throat and spoke up. "So, what's the deal?"

She pointed to his ribcage and spine. "See how thick these bones are, and the small lumps around most of his ribs? I'd guess he's broken most if not all of those ribs, and several vertibrae. It's amazing he's not paralyzed. His legs and arms seem to have been broken in several places many times as well. See how this alignment is slightly off?" She pointed to more bones against the black backdrop using the tip of her pen.

"Now, that's not the strangest thing by a longshot. See this here?" She indicated to his collarbone, and both Sam and Dean squinted at the same time. Very faintly carved into his collarbone, which must have translated into the dashboard in his car form, was a craggy "D.W. S.W."

Sam pretended to be shocked. "Wow! That's weird!" Dean shot him a look- a look that clearly said 'that was  _totally_  not convincing, Sam.'

The girl snorted. "That's not even the weirdest thing. See these?" She pointed to a rectangluar object wedged in his lung. "This is a  _lego_. And this-" She dragged her pen down to what Dean guessed was one of his kidneys. "One of those  _little green army men._ Can you believe that? I have no idea how those even  _got_  there."

Sam and Dean's eyes met. Sam shot Dean a very little brotherly face and Dean mouthed at him 'shut up!'

"Thanks so much, ma'am." Sam flashed her a small lift of his lips and led Dean away by the arm.

Dean looked pretty angry that Sam had proven him wrong.

"Dean, face the facts, man! The guy in that checkup room, Dean, it's  _Baby_! There's no denying that now, and you know it." Sam said, and Dean was doing that thing where he set his jaw and his expression was tight and pissed off.

Sam jabbed a finger to his chest. "What's the matter with you?!" Sam berated him. "You  _love_  that old car! Why aren't you happy to meet him, Dean?"

Dean set his mouth in a line. "You know I have to keep my guard up, Sam. I can't afford to trust people like you do."

Sam lifted an eyebrow. "This has nothing to do with him being a guy?"

Dean pinched the bridge of his nose. "I thought she'd have a nice ass." He admitted.

Sam let out a groan. "I can't believe you, Dean! You're so superficial! This is our car, and he's  _here_  and he's  _human_! It's not like he chose to look like this! You need to get that stick out of your ass."

"I don't like him." Dean lied, frowning. In reality, he wasn't sure if he wanted to open up to Baby. He'd taken his anger out on him multiple times, he knew if he were Baby he'd be totally pissed at him. Dammit, when he's taken a crowbar to the thing or smashed it through that SucroCorp sign or the countless other stuff he put the old machine through he never imagined that the thing would  _feel_  it. The last thing he needed was even more guilt.

"You don't even know him!" Sam let out a frusterated groan. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm going to go get him from the waiting room."

Sam stormed away from Dean, not knowing how Dean could be such an ass sometimes and not even feel bad about it. He thought Dean of all people would love a human version of that old car. He thought it wouldn't matter that he was a guy. But he had read Dean wrong, apparently.

He peeked his head into the waiting room. "Hey, Baby?" The man whipped his head up, and Sam saw a guilty and somewhat scared expression on his face.

"Sam," He sighed in relief, quickly standing up and rushing over to him. "Sam...I think I'm running on empty." He said nervously, wringing his hands and looking at Sam with guilty pale blue eyes. "I estimate I only have around five miles left."

Sam brought his eyebrows together. "You...?"

Baby's stomach rumbled loudly, and his eyes flew wide and he pressed his hands tight over his stomach. "Sam I'm running on fumes! I have to get to a gas station  _now_  or I'm going to break down!" He grabbed Sam's shirt desperately. "Sam I don't want to break down!"

Sam couldn't help but smile. "Baby." He clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Baby, calm down. You're just hungry."

Baby looked confused instead of relieved. " _Hungry?_ "

Sam laughed and clapped him on the back, leading him out the doors. "Let's go fill up that tank, then?"


	4. Chapter 4

"Ugh," Baby groaned as he saw another bright yellow cab pull up by the hospital. "I don't want to be associated with these... tacky  _yellow_   _vermin_  of the roads."

Sam laughed as Baby crossed his arms and slowed his pace a little. "I know, Baby. No one likes cabs. They're ugly as hell but they're convenient."

"Fine," Baby grumbled, still seeming a little tense as he opened the door and slid into the black leather seat. "This never happened." He mumbled into the window, still keeping his arms crossed as he looked out the window. "And I want you guys to know that I feel extremely uncomfortable right now."

Dean hid a smile behind his hand and coughed to try and force his face to stop smiling.

"Uh, where do you guys want lunch?" Sam asked.

"Doesn't really matter. As long as we can get a meal for.." Dean pulled out his wallet and counted the bills. "Like, twenty bucks for all three of us. We need cabfare for there and back still."

"We gotta rent a car, Dean. This is adding up." Sam said, and Dean rolled his eyes. "I know, Sam. We'll get to it. We'll go to the rentals place by the airport on the way back. "

Baby slid his butt around and it made a squeaky sound. "Thank God. I will not be doing this  _any_  more than I have to."

Dean was trying really, really hard not to like this guy.

...

Dean ordered his own food, and Baby had Sam order for him, a burger and a drink.

Sam shot Dean a glare for that. It was like he didn't want to even  _try_  to be nice to Baby, show him all kinds of new food or anything. Dean sipped his beer and put it down with a clink, not even trying to start up a conversation with the car-turned-human. Sam cleared his throat and gave Dean a look with his eyebrows raised, and Dean shot him a glare back and took another drink of beer.

"You know what, I need to go to the  _bathroom_." Sam said the last word through gritted teeth at Dean, who rolled his eyes just a little. Sam's chair squeaked as he stood up, giving Dean another bitchface as he finally walked stiffly away into the back of the restaurant.

There was an awkward moment that Dean didn't want to let go of his beer. He just kept drinking as slowly as he could, hoping that Baby wasn't going to try and start a conversation either.

The man sighed and ran his hand through his pitch hair.

"Geez, Dean. I never thought  _Sam_  would be the one taking care of me. I mean, he freaking put an iPod jack in me! I want to know why you're so damn angry!" He gripped his own beer tightly in his hand, his knuckles whitening. "Sorry I'm not a hot piece of ass that you can bang, okay? Maybe it's better this way. You ever think of it like that?"

Dean finally put his beer down with a clink. He just looked straight ahead.

"You can't even look at me now?" Baby spat. "I'm not  _disfunctional_ , Dean, just cuz I don't have a pair of tits. You and Sam are my only family. And just because I turned out to be a dude doesn't change that."

"No, I guess it doesn't." Dean had to admit back, sighing and taking another sip of beer.

"Dude, I have a fucking  _lego_  in my lung! Why doesn't it still seem like you don't believe this?" Baby shot him a wolfy glare, jabbing at his own chest above his lung.

"Whoever did this, did it to mess with me, okay? And it's working." Dean avoided his eyes and looked the other way.

"You know what, Dean? You took that crowbar to me and it sucked!" Baby snarled, grabbing the front of his shirt and twisting the material. "I felt the pain you felt, Dean! I know you were hurting! I felt that hurt too!"

"Yeah it fucking sucked, but you  _needed_  that! And it hurt, yeah, but I don't care, because that helped you. I've known you your whole life, Dean.  _Why can't you just talk to me like I'm a halfway fucking decent human being?_ "

"Because you're not a human being!" Dean forced the fist from his shirt, slamming it down on the table, and stalked out the door to the car, until he remembered that he didn't drive his car here.

Great. Just great.

He went back inside, extremely embarrassed as the bell tinkled a little again. Baby was just where he left him, his fist curled and still in the spot where he'd slammed it on the table, he was looking out into the parking lot with what could only be longing.

Dean came back up to the table. Sam still wasn't back from the "bathroom". Baby didn't say anything at first.

"Baby, I'm sorry." Dean shoved his hands in his pockets. "I know you didn't choose this. I'm being a total ass-"

Before Dean could even react, big arms were wrapped tightly around him, and he was hit with the scent of leather and engine oil. Dean wrapped his arms back and patted his broad shoulders awkwardly. Dean pulled his arms away, and Baby didn't.

"Uh..Baby?" Dean asked, trying to the pry the guy off of him.

"Shh. Shut up. This is for all the times I wanted to hug you but couldn't." Baby shot out, finally squeezing him one last time before pulling away, a dopy smile on his face that he could have only inherited from Sam as he held his shoulders outstretched. He patted Dean's shoulder.

"I know you inside and out, Dean. I get that you are weirded out by this and it's your way of trying to adjust." He took his arm away and looked at Dean with those pale blue eyes. His creepily  _knowing_  eyes.

Dean gave him a little half-smile, sitting back down, but truth was...that hug felt awesome. He needed something like that. God, Baby was definitely going to bring the girl out of him if he kept doing this whole guilt-trip and then ending with 'but I'm your car and I love you'. He was like a friggin' puppy. A puppy he didn't ask for.

Sam, surprise surprise, came back just after they'd made up.

They were both digging in to their burgers. Baby moaned. " _Dude_. Dean, this thing is  _golden_."

Dean chewed, swallowed, and spoke up. "I know, right?"

"So, you two all made up?" Sam asked, and laughed at both Dean and Baby's eye rolls.

"Siddown and eat your damn salad." Dean jabbed at the seat next to him.

"Seriously?" Sam asked. " _All_  made up?"

Dean frowned and gave Sam a look. "Yeah."

Sam gave Dean the ultimate bitchface. "Good. Cuz now I can make fun of you."

Sam slid into his seat and took a bite of his salad. "Dean. Your car's a  _dude_." He threw his head back and belly-laughed with his salad and Dean crossed his arms and pinched the bridge of his nose. He couldn't say he didn't expext this.

"Yeah, whatever." Baby shot out. "It doesn't change the fact that the two of you have spent the best of times inside me."

Dean smacked his forehead. Sam inhaled a piece of lettuce and laugh-choked it out. Everyone within a twenty-foot radius had their eyes on them.

And this was going to be a  _long_  trip back home.


	5. Chapter 5

"Dammit Sam, we are not renting a goddamn Mazda." Dean rolled his eyes as the three of them wandered down the aisles of parked cars, shiny and clean, at the car rental by the airport. "Especially not a  _blue_  Mazda. Who the hell do you think I am?"

Baby snorted. "You know, in my opinion, _none_ of these cars are good enough for you guys." He said bitterly, crossing his arms.

"Baby, look. We have to get a car somehow. Just, try and not be jealous, okay?" Sam was trying hard to not burst out laughing. "Fine, Dean. What kind of car do you want to get, then?

Dean shrugged. "I don't know, I learned how to drive dad's old pick up pretty well. We could just go with one of those, crash in the back for the night like we used to. Because right now, we have barely enough money to rent more motel rooms."

Baby rolled his eyes. "You guys have got to be kidding me. A black pick up truck is literally the biggest douche in the entire car world."

Sam shrugged. "Dean, it is kind of true."

"So, what else are we supposed to do? Try and rent another 1967 Impala?" Sam's voice was dripping with sarcasm, but Baby had his hand gripped onto the front of his shirt in no time.

"You aren't replacing me, goddammit!" Baby growled, his eyes narrowed and full of hurt, and Sam threw his hands in the air with his palms up.

"Baby, I was  _joking_." Sam shook his head and had to laugh at how angry Baby had gotten at that.

"Oh. Sorry." Baby looked embarrassed as he smiled a little at Sam and with an awkward chuckle and he brushed down the twisted cloth.

"Fine. What kind of car would  _you_  like to rent, Baby?" Dean asked, looking around at the isles and isles of potential cars.

Baby smiled a little. "Don't laugh at me, okay?"

Dean wondered what in the hell Baby was about to suggest. "Fine. We won't. "

"Well, remember that ol' yellow VW van that John was going to buy? Well, she was pretty cool. I wouldn't mind riding in a van like that."

"She?" Dean asked. "The van was a she?"

Baby looked confused. "Well, yeah. I'm telling you, she was cute. A real hippie chick. "

"You're totally kidding me right?" Sam spoke up, stopping in his tracks. "You've been crushing on other cars?"

Baby blushed and shoved his hands in his black denim pockets. "Uh, yeah?"

Sam covered his eyes with his hand. "Oh, mother of God..you really are Dean's car, aren't you"

Dean came up and slung his arm around Baby. "Hey. If Baby thought the hippie chick was cute, let 'em think that. At least there wasn't like a huge age gap between them. Almost-seventies and eighties, right?"

"Well, I do like those 2010 Red Ferrari Califonias. They're like baywatch babes. Of course, they're kind of full of themselves. But they sure are eye candy. Damn." Baby laughed.

"Yeah, Baby! Git it!" Dean pounded him on the back.

Sam was speechless for a minute as he tried to speak up but all that came ouut was gibberish. Finally he spoke up. "D-y-oh my god, do you two realize that these are literally  _cars_  you're talking about?"

"Hey, Baby, you know how we always see another car's bumper when we're driving? Is that kind of like checking out another car's ass?"

Baby smirked. "Oh, yeah."

Dean erupted into laughter.

Sam covered his face with both hands this time. "This is ridiculous. I'm getting the guy to choose for us."

...

Baby was biting his lips, his arms crossed tightly over his chest as he blew a strand of black hair off his pale forehead.

"This was completely random, Baby, I promise." Sam spoke up next to him.

Baby huffed and set his lips in a line again. "This is shit. This is a piece of shit car. Fuck this car."

Dean coughed into his fist to try and stop laughing at Baby's little tantrum. "Baby, you promised me you wouldn't get jealous."

Baby rolled his pale eyes and let out a groan. "Me, riding the bench seat of a goddamn Black Chevy Silverado. He's like that douchebag cousin who's always bragging about how much he can bench. Just 'cuz I'm a Chevy doesn't mean I'm gonna like this piece of shitballs."

Baby screwed up his face and spoke up in a mocking voice. " _Oh, bro, dude, do you even lift? Oh, you're from the sixites? Go back to the retirement home old man!_ Shut the fuck up Silverado!"

Dean and Sam tried to hold back their laughing but finally burst with matching snorts, throwing their heads back on top of the black leather bench seat as they bellowed.

"Shuddup!" Baby growled, frowning deeply and pressed his crossed arms even tighter to his body.

Dean revved just to mess with him as they went a little faster down the road to go home.


	6. Chapter 6

It was a lot nicer of a drive than Dean had been expecting. Baby was a good person to drive with, even though he'd occasionally dreamily stare at the road rushing by and sigh, saying things like 'ahh, the stretch of road beneath my tires...' and then go back to sighing. The Winchesters usually just ignored him when he did that.

They had started to talk to him and ask questions. Some a lot less intelligent than others.

"If Baby's black than why are you white?" Dean was the one who asked.

Baby threw his hands up in an angry shrug, his eyes wide with irritation. "I don't even know how I'm  _human_! How the hell should I know what  _race_  I am? I'm a fucking car, dude!"

"Oh my god, Karen, you can't just ask people why they're white." Sam said under his breath.

"What?" Dean asked. 

"What?" Sam replied, as if he'd never said anything in the first place. 

Sam asked him another question around thirty minutes later. "How are you even speaking English?"

Baby shrugged. "I guess I just picked it up from my past owners.  _Penso di poter parlare un po Italiano anche."_

Dean brought his eyebrows together. "You did  _what_?" He joked.

Baby rolled his eyes. "I said I think I can speak a little Italian too. I picked it up from my first owner Sal."

And that launched him into telling them all about his past owners.

They seemed to have endless questions for him, no matter how dumb. They especially liked trying to match human body parts with car parts. Needless to say Dean was very dissapointed to find out that there were no such thing as a car dick. Sam found it very interesting that the exhaust system was comparable to the human lung system.

And three hours in Baby, was just trying to keep patient.

"Hey, I got another one." Dean said after a numerous amount of hours driving. The sun was beginning to set, bathing the world in a thin orange light as it cast the shadows of trees like cracks on the road. "Where do you think all our weapons went? I mean, he had a belly full of gasoline, and he still has that old lego..."

The two brothers eyed the Impala, who was sitting between them in the bench seat, and the dark-haired man huffed and pinched the bridge of his nose in irritation.

" _Guys._ No, I don't have a full arson of fucking guns shoved up my asshole, okay? And that's not even the anatomical region. It's more like my lower back."

Dean chuckled and Baby shot him a glare. "At least whoever made me into  _this_  took that into consideration. Sucks that we don't know where the weapons are for now, though. But Dean, you still have your handgun, right?"

Dean nodded, and he spoke up as another thought occurred to him. "I mean, you said the trunk's your lower back? What about that devil's trap on the boot?"

Baby scowled. "What, you want to know if I have a tramp stamp or something?" He used his palm to feel his lower back, and his eyes widened. "Shit."

"He does!" Dean mocked. "Oh my god, he does!"

Baby reddened and tore his hand away, making an effort to pull his black tank even lower on his hips. "Bitch, you were the one who carved it into me! You asshole!"

"Haha, oh my god! I wanna see it!" Dean was laughing so hard the car began drifting into the other lane.

Baby reddened even more. "It's a scar in a devil's trap, okay, there's nothing to see!"

"Hey, I wonder what happened to that little dent in the fender, Dean, remember the one you made when you were sixteen and we never told dad?" Sam spoke up excitedly.

Dean laughed. "Oh,  _yeah_! Where's that?"

Baby rolled his eyes and opened his mouth a little, showing a chip off one of his incisors.

The brothers once again erupted into laughter.

"Okay, enough with "exploring Baby's body time"!" Baby said irritably, complete with the finger air quotes, and crossed his arms once again. "...And I think my battery's running low." He mumbled, coughing with embarrassment into his fist.

"It's called being tired." Sam explained. "Yeah. We should probably try and find a motel tonight."

Dean sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "I told you, Sam. We're running low on funds. We gotta hustle some pool or something soon if we don't want to wind up sleeping in the truckbed."

Baby shot Dean a hurt look, his dark eyebrows furrowing as he pouted a little. " _Wow_ , okay. So now you're going to be  _sleeping_  in this other car. Thanks for asking if I was okay with it."

Dean rolled his eyes and looked to Baby. "Fine." He huffed. "Are you okay with it?"

" _No_!" Baby pouted, crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes.

"Fine. We'll see if we can find some way to get some extra cash." Sam spoke up, trying to have Baby calm down. "Here," He pulled out his phone, slid it to unlock it, and looked up some nearby motels on the maps.

When they finally pulled in to the cheapest motel they could find in the area, Baby was already half asleep and his head was lolling on the bench seat. He even let out a little snore before pulling back to half-conciousness.

Dean finally pulled the truck gear into park after close to five hours of driving, and the silence and stillness was a nice relief after the constant hum and vibration of the truck.

"How long do you think he's gonna stay like this, Sam?" Dean spoke up, pulling the keys from the ignition with a jingle. He plopped them into his lap with a sigh and looked to Sam. "We don't even have a single lead as to who did this to him."

Sam pressed his lips together. "I don't know, man. A real-life trickster this time? Or maybe Gabriel never really did die? A witch's spell? There's really no way of telling right now."

Dean finally opened the door and climbed out. "Well, we could break out the old computer tomorrow and try and find some leads. But I need some shut-eye for tonight. I'll go register, kay?"

Sam nodded, letting his mind wander for a few seconds as to how something like this could even happen. He finally snapped out of it and nudged Baby on the shoulder. "Hey. Wake up."

Baby mumbled and whapped the hand away.

"Baby. We're here." Sam nudged him again.

Baby sucked in a breath and flailed his arms, blurting 'semi-truck!' He finally saw it was only Sam and let out a sigh of relief. "Geez, man! Couldn't you have waited until the morning to give me a jumpstart?"

"Jumpst-? You know what, never mind. I'm saying we're here. Hey, grab Dean's duffle, would you?"

Baby groaned sleepily and took the straps of the small duffle that held Dean's clothes and followed Dean inside.

The two brothers passed out easily on the shitty beds, and Baby was left to sleep on the rollaway. He slept very rockily, waking up every thirty minutes or so. He felt claustrophobic with these four walls and a roof over his head. And he just could not get comfortable on this damn bed.

So, around two in the morning, Baby groggily rolled out of bed, tugged the blanket off and wrapped it around his shoulders, a walking blanket with hairy legs, and stumbled out the motel door.

And the next morning, the brothers found him fast asleep, smack dab in the middle of the parking spot outside the room, snuggled up inside a little wrinkly cocoon of blankets. His dark hair was a mess (a lot like Cas's when he woke up in the morning),and low snores grated into the air, rumbling like his low voice.

And it was simultaneously the dumbest, and sweetest, thing the brothers had seen in a long time.


	7. Chapter 7

It was annoying to try and wake Baby up after he slept for a few hours. He was apparently a very deep sleeper and not easily awakened.

"Baby. For the last time, get your ass up and get in the truck." Dean growled, nudging him a little with the toe of his light yellow carpenter's boot. " _Baby_!"

"Just climb in already. Stop kicking me." Baby groaned, shying away from Dean's foot.

"Newsflash; I can't 'climb in' because you're not a car anymore!" Dean groaned. He and Sam had been trying to wake him for ten minutes now.

Baby rolled onto his belly. "Vroom vroom bitches," He mumbled before supposedly falling asleep once again.

"Ugh. Fuck this. Sam, help me lift him to get in the car." Dean grabbed his ankles and Sam snaked his arms under his armpits and they lifted him, shoving him into the bench seat of the truck.

"I swear to God it better not be like this every morning." Dean shook his head. "Let's go get some coffee and breakfast, maybe you can store some offline reading webpages with the coffeehouse wifi, we can start trying to figure out how to get him back to normal."

Baby finally groggily woke up around halfway to the coffeehouse, groaning and rubbing his eyes. "God dammit. You guys didn't even jumpstart me properly."

"You'll feel better with some caffeine in your system." Sam assured him, as he pulled the laptop open and booted it up.

They finally parked and piled out, Sam in the lead, followed by Dean, followed by Baby. They were about to go inside when Baby grabbed Dean's arm and wrenched him backwards. Dean stumbled, not expecting him to be so strong.

" _Dean_!" Baby hissed excitedly.

"What?" Dean said irritably. "Geez, no need to be so rough."

"What's that?" Baby excitedly pointed to a man leaning on the side of the building, smoking a cigarette and checking his phone with the other hand.

"Um, a phone?" Dean spoke up, and Baby gave him a  _look_.

"I know what a  _phone_  is, Dean." His voice was dripping with sarcasm, rolling his eyes. Another trait he'd inherited from Sam, apparently. "I meant the other thing. With the exhaust coming out of it. The exhaust-stick." Baby pointed at the cigarette again.

"Oh. That's not exhaust, it's smoke. And it's called a cigarette." Dean explained. And why was Baby getting so excited about it?

"Dean. I must have one of these 'cigarettes',  _please_." Baby pleaded, his blue eyes way too innocent for a guy like him. He gripped Dean's upper arms with surprising strength. "I haven't felt hot exhaust flowing through my system in a whole  _day_. I feel dead inside, Dean, you don't understand. It's awful. Please?"

"We'll see what we can do." Dean said gruffly before taking him by the arm and  tugging him inside, Baby still keeping his eyes on the cigarette as he clumsily stumbled by Dean's lead. The smoking man was starting to give Baby a glare as Baby blatantly stared at him, finally being yanked inside by Dean. 

It was much more peaceful with the three of them than Dean had thought it would be. He thought that it might be awkward with the three of them because he was so used to only Sam, but it wasn't the case.

Dean felt at ease as Sammy clacked away at the computer keys, pausing every few minutes to take a sip of his coffee or take a bite of is bran muffin. Baby ate his bagel and checked out the automobiles section in the newspaper, not caring that Sam and Dean laughed at him at first. Dean drank his own coffee, and out of habit scanned the newspaper for any strange happenings.

The air was full of the whirr of coffee grinders, clinks of forks on porcelain or cups clinking against tables, a peaceful din, and the rich aroma of coffee beans saturated the air. Dean hadn't felt this at ease for a while, especially that they were on a case now with trying to fix Baby. He couldn't remember being this relaxed on a case in a long time. 

"Well, I haven't found out much, but I'm pretty sure we can rule out witches." Sam said, twisting the laptop around so that Dean and Baby could see the information webpage he was on. "It says here that witches don't have the means to transfigure inanimate objects into living objects. They also wouldn't have been able to create a living human body using other means either ."

Dean pinched his lower lip on thought between his thumb and pointer finger. "So, we're thinking it might be a trickster, or maybe even Gabriel?"

Sam shrugged. "Or something we're not even thinking of yet. We just don't know."

Dean furrowed his brows. "So not witches? One-hundred percent?"

Sam nodded. Dean sighed a little. "Well, at least we won't have to be dealing with psycho bitches this time."

"Who says it won't be a female trickster?" Sam shot Dean the ulimate bitchface.

"Who says it will be?" Dean shot back.

"I'm just saying it could be either gender." Sam shut his laptop and shrugged, pretending to be nonchalant.

"...but probably not." Dean said again, crossing his arms. 

"Dean, you're being kinda misogynist, technically-" 

"Ladies, ladies. You're both pretty," Baby interrupted gruffly, he put down the newspaper with a papery rustle, and flicked his pale blue eyes from Sam to Dean's face. "I say we get back home as soon as we can. Cas or Kevin might know what to do."

Dean and Sam perked up. "You know Cas?" Dean asked, and Baby made a face, scrunching up his nose in annoyance.

"Are you guys forgetting who I am?" Baby huffed irritably. " _Seriously_  though."

The three of them stood up and began to make their way out the door.

"Dean-don't forget the exhaust stick!" Baby exclaimed childishly as he saw the smoking man once again on the way out, tugging on Dean's sleeve a little above the elbow like a little kid. "Dean I need my exhaust!"

Needless to say, Sam looked extremely confused. "Where was I when they were handing out normal lives?" Dean mumbled, fishing out the rental keys from his pocket. 

...

Dean riffled through his wallet and grudglingly took a few rumpled bills. He rested his elbows on the checkout counter and looked at the man behind the counter, who gave him a bored stare.

"Can you give me a pack of cigs that most resembles car exhaust?" Dean said in a low voice, trying to be discrete. 

The man blinked at him with unamused eyes. "Is this a joke? Are you one of those health activists or something?"

Dean scowled. "We can always go to another store, buddy."

"Fine," The guy turned around produced a pack of cigarettes. "$5.50 please."

Dean payed and they went out of the little gas station store, Sam had finished filling up the pickup's tank and they were ready to hit the road again. Baby lit up on the walk back to the car, using the old metal lighter the brothers always used for burning the bodies.

"Oh, my god." Baby spoke up in disbelief. Dean looked at him, not sure if he was saying that because he hated it or because he loved it.

"This is perfect! Thank you Dean!" He smiled brightly and clapped Dean on the back, sucking desperately on his 'exhaust-stick' as the embers lit up and crackled orange. Dean coughed to stop the smile on his face.

"I guess that's saying something about health then, huh?" Dean chuckled to himself. "That's nasty."

"Oh, get off my dick." Baby still had his eyes closed as smoke tumbled from his lips. "Oh, Great Creator of Model T.."*

(* "Mother of God" in automobile lingo)

"Okay, ground rules, no smoking in the car. Or in the bunker when we get there. Only outside." Dean strode back to the car with Baby in tow. 

"Yeah, okay." Baby agreed dismissively, waving his hand as if to push the words away, and taking another long drag, smoke spilling opaque from his lips. "Oh, thank heaven humans invented this."

Baby frowned at looked at Dean with sad grey eyes, finally taking the cigarette from his mouth. "Dean..I miss being a car." He said dejectedly, his lower lip wobbling a little. "I don't want to be human anymore."

"Sorry, man. We're trying, okay?" Dean opened up the truck door and stepped up into the seat.

Baby waited outside the store until he smoked the cigarette down to a nub, finally climbing back into the truck and heading back down the road.

"I have another sensation." Baby said about five minutes later, embarrased as he crossed his legs in front of him.

"Dammit. We  _just_  left the bathroom stop." Dean groaned.

"Coffee'll do that to ya," Sam snorted into his hand and Baby pinched his earlobe like a scolding parent, or a pissed off older brother.

" _Ow_!"


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much everyone for your feedback! It makes me so happy :)

"Are we there yet?" Baby yawned and stretched his arms out in front of him. "I could do this distance in half the time without guzzling so much gas like this piece of shit car does."

Dean rolled his eyes. "We know you could, Baby." He gave Sam a look and the two smirked at each other. Baby was so full of himself. Literally exactly like Dean was sometimes.

Baby rolled his eyes. "Oh, don't pull that! You two owe me for going through the baby stage with you. I am a friggin'  _muscle car_ for  _monster hunters._  And your mom loved to show you off, all these people are looking through the windows cooing and awwing and she put  _booster seats_ in me, Dean.  _Baby booster seats_ , dammit. Do you know what that did to my ego?" Baby cringed at the memories.

"They were awful. Little safari print with the giraffes and zebras and hippos and lions and they had these little cutesy spinning mobiles and built in rattles and just  _no_. Do I look like the cutesy-wootsie carseat kind of guy to you?" Baby pointed at himself, a flustered look on his face, his wolfish dark eyebrows narrowed over his eyes.

"Didn't think so." Baby finally broke his character and chuckled a little, shaking his head and getting a distant smile on his face as he looked out at the road climbing by.

"Yeah. Mary loved showing you two off." Baby sighed, a little bit of water leaking into his voice as his pale eyes stared out at the dark trees whipping by, but it was clear he was remembering memories. 

He cleared his throat, his features hardening again. 

He was Dean's car, after all. 

"Just promise me if you two ever have kids it's gonna be plain black carseats. None of that Noah's Arc Safari Baby crap. Kay?" He instantly brushed off that little spike of emotion, and the brothers exchanged a glance while he wasn't looking. 

So, instead of yesterday's game of "explore and match Baby's body", Sam and Dean wordlessly both decided to play a new game today on the ten hour drive back to the bunker; try to get as much information out of Baby before he'd clam up like he did just now.

They found out that every Sunday Mary took them shopping at the farmer's market. And that Sam was always in that little baby harness strapped to the front, whereas Dean never had been. Dean pointed and laughed at Sam for that one.

Baby told them they did the typical kid things like sneaking their favorite things into the carts at grocery stores and beg to buy them. He reminded Dean about his strange affinity for Lucky Charms when he'd been around four and Dean pretended like a bug had flown through the (very closed, mind you) window and gotten in his eye.

Baby told them about when they came home from the hospital for the first time. That Dean wailed the whole way home, much to Mary and John's dismay, but that little Sammy had quietly slept like a little angel, and that he only actual noise was once again from four-year-old Dean as he begged nonstop to hold him. Sam was the one who got to point and laugh at Dean this time.

They didn't mind how pointless the stories were. Baby rambled about Dean's first grazed knee at the playground or Sammy's tantrums that were in no way helped as Dean tickled his little baby feet. How one day they went to the beach and Mary bought them popsicles and Dean had the cherry and John had the grape and Mary had the lime and that she gave the baby a tiny bite to try and Sam looked so surprised at the ice cold sensation in his young mouth that John and Mary must have laughed for fifteen minutes straight.

Dean couldn't remember  _normal_. But these stories somehow helped fill in that gaping hole in his chest that ached for normal. Knowing these things happened, even if he couldn't remember them, filled in that hole just the tiniest bit.

They stopped at a local diner for lunch. Baby and Dean got cheeseburgers, and Sam got a fish filet. They ran completely out of all cash by the end of the meal and didn't tip the waitress. She'd been rude anyway.

Dean prayed that they had enough gas to last the rest of the way home. They piled in and drove again after lunch. Baby kept talking and talking. Sam cried. Dean cried but tried desperately to hide it. Baby eventually ran out of snippets to voice.

The three sat there in comfortable silence as the radio played softly in the background and the engine hummed for the last hour of the trip. There was no need to talk right now anyway.

The truck finally shuddered to a stop in front of the bunker.

Baby groaned when the pickup truck finally stopped completely.

"Finally," He kicked the door open quite harshly and practically fell out of the car. "Goodbye, dickhead!" Baby said to the car and slammed the door very, very hard. Then he shot the machine the middle finger and turned away from it like it disgusted him. 

Baby stretched a little and groaned as he waited for Sam and Dean to walk up next to him. "Alright, time to finally see the inside of this bunker you two are always hiding away in these days." Right when Sam had unlocked the bunker door, Baby was barelling in.

He froze once he'd made it a few steps inside and looked around in awe.

"Well! Fuck me sideways until next Thursday because this bunker is  _bitchin_ '." Baby looked around him with his hands on his hips. "I'll be damned, Sammy. This is the kind of 'inside' I've been waiting to see. This is your new house?" He turned toward Sam and lifted a dark eyebrow, a smile playing on his lips.

Sam realized what he was implying. That he and Dean probably wouldn't be referring to Baby as their home anymore. But Baby didn't have that jealous expression like he usually did when another car was involved, which struck Sam as a little odd.

"Yeah. I guess it is." Sam said with a grin.

"Good." Baby said curtly, turning back around and taking in the main room of the bunker, the telescope in the back, the research table, the meeting room that could just be seen with the inner balconies and world map. Baby whistled.

"You mean, you're not jealous or anything?" Sam asked, running his hands through his long hair and huffing a small laugh.

"Why the hell would I be jealous, Sammy?" Baby asked, almost offended, turning back around to face him. "All your life you guys have wanted an honest-to-goodness home. And this place is outta sight."

Sam laughed a little at his friend's sixties lingo, and Baby's eyebrows tipped upward with sympathy. "I know you won't be calling me 'home' anymore. But you'll still be driving me around and maybe crashing in me from time to time." Baby smiled brightly. "I just want what's best for my boys."

Sam pulled him into a hug and shut his eyes. Baby hugged back and squeezed Sam's shoulders tightly.

"You have no idea how happy I am that you got to be a human." Sam laughed into his ear.

"Well, I'm not so physched about it, but at least one of us is happy." Baby laughed back, and Sam squeezed him a little tighter, a small whimper in the back of his throat.

"I'm going to miss you a hell of a lot when you leave." Sam said quietly.

"You're such a girl, Samantha." Baby ruffled his hair as he pulled away. "Well? Aren't you going to show me around?"

Sam gave him a quick little tour, indicating to certain rooms and explaining what they were. Baby seemed to have his mind elsewhere, though.

Sam finally finished the tour, and Baby smirked as they landed at the place they'd started.

"So... where's Cas? Where is that li'l bitch?" Baby asked playfully, and Sam smirked and led him into the living room, where Cas and Kevin were sitting, Kevin had a few books and notepads littered across the table, and Cas was reading something else.

"There you are, you damn angel!" Baby laughed, running up to Cas and whipping his arms around him. "Hmmm!" Baby squeezed him like he was a gigantic teddy bear and planted a kiss on his forehead. "Mwa!  _Cas_!" He said joyfully.

Castiel looked alarmed to say the least at the stranger hugging him. "Dean! Sam!" He managed to squeak.

Dean came back out to the living room, wiping his hands off with a washcloth from the meatballs he had started making, chuckling a little. "Cas, it's okay. That's just my car-mysteriously-turned-human, aka massively overgrown puppy Baby."

"Thanks for saving my boys so many times. Seriously. I owe you big time." Baby said into his ear, squeezing Cas so tightly that he let out a tiny wheeze.

"Dean!" Cas squeaked.

"Baby! Heel! Down boy!" Dean joked, and Baby shot him an angry look as he pulled away from Cas.

"Shut up, Dean." He turned back to the ex-angel, whose eyes were still wide. "And you recognize me Cas, don't you?" Baby lifted his eyebrows and waggled them, a tiny smile on his face. "The sigil, remember? Can't you feel it?"

He stared at Cas, noticing for a second that he was wearing different clothes. "Cas? Where are your holy tax accountant clothes?"

Cas pressed his lips together and frowned. "I'm not an angel anymore." He said quietly.

Baby looked shocked. "Oh my g- Cas, what happened?" His grey-blue eyes were genuinely sad. He reached out and gripped Cas's shoulder. "Castiel?"

"I wandered here. They never picked me up in the car since the fall. And I haven't exactly wanted to drive anywhere yet either." Cas explained why Baby didn't know yet.

"I...I don't know what to say, Cas." Baby's tone lowered. "I'm sorry."

Dean brought his eyebrows together and cleared his throat. "What sigil are you talking about?" He asked, trying to chance the subject.

Baby snorted, and lifted up his shirt a little to show a circular scarring pattern around his belly button, it looked like some kind of angelic sigil.

"I'm your tracker. How the flying fuck do you think Cas finds you otherwise? You two still have carved-up ribs, you know. He put this on the bottom of the car's body one day, so you wouldn't see it." Baby smirked. "Pretty smart, eh? He knew you'd never ditch me." He smiled brightly, like a little kid after being told 'yes' to ice cream, and Dean snorted.

"Yeah, I guess it was pretty smart." Dean smiled, eyeing Cas with a tiny smile and cleaning inbetween his fingers with the washcloth.

...

Things went smoothly for the rest of the night, Dean made spagetti and meatballs for everyone in the bunker, and there weren't any leftovers between Kevin, Baby, Castiel, Sam and Dean. Cas complimented Dean on the food, saying it was the best meal he's had yet. Dean smiled at the ground and picked at his own plate, clearing his throat and mumbling a small 'thanks'.

When Dean looked back up from his plate, he saw Baby waggling his dark eyebrows with a little smirk on his face, across from where Dean sat. Dean rolled his eyes, checked to make sure Cas wasn't looking, and animatedly mouthed 'shut up'!

Dean absolutely loved his new home. Kevin had retired early to his room, and Cas was in his room but not asleep yet; crackly, jazzy music swelled from behind his bedroom door, where they'd moved the phonograph after Cas had taken such a liking to it.The fallen angel listened to a new record every night, volunteering to sort through the vinyls and see which ones were worth keeping around. He hadn't gotten rid of a single vinyl so far.

Sam was doing a little reading in the dimly lit living room, one of the hundreds of books that the Men of Letters had kept on their shelves.

"Hey, Dean." Baby was leaning on the doorpost of the door leading into the kitchen, where Dean was finishing cleaning up, washing the pots, saucepans, plates and silverware by hand in the sink. "You want any help?"

Dean shook his head, scrubbing the white face of one of the plates with a sponge. "It's okay. I'm almost done."

Baby smiled. "You have your own kitchen now, huh?"

"Hell yeah I do," Dean laughed and scrubbed the next plate with little circular motions. "You like it?"

Baby grinned. " 'Course I do." He pulled his box of cigs out of his pocket, pulling out one slender white line. "Dean? Care to meet me outside after this?"

Dean was confused. He moved on to the next plate, bringing his eyebrows together as he wondered what in the world Baby wanted to talk to him about.


	9. Chapter 9

_The next morning..._

Kevin stared at Baby from across the table at breakfast. Sam was eating a bowl of cereal and reading the newspaper. Kevin stared at Baby with his button-black eyes, and Baby stared back, unamused, his arms crossed.

Kevin stared.

Baby stared back and blew a dark lock of hair off his forehead.

Kevin stared more.

Baby snorted. "Okay, what the hell d'ya want?"

"So, you're really a car?" Kevin finally asked, and Baby rolled his eyes so hard his head came with it.

" _Yesss_ ," Baby said irritably, drumming his fingers on the dining room table. "And I really want to get back to being one because I don't know if I can stand this for much longer."

Kevin smiled a little. "You don't like being human, huh?"

Baby shook his head, crossing his arms and pouting a little.

"Yeah, welcome to the club." Kevin semi-laughed.

Cas finally came to the dining table, shuffling his feet a little as he carried his cup of steaming morning coffee and was wearing Sam's old ratty Stanford hoodie. He scratched his messy black hair and sat next to Baby, putting his cup down on the table.

"Okay, "Baby"." Cas spoke up, complete with airquotes. "Let me see what I can do." Cas gravelled, rubbing the sleep from one of his eyes. He yawned and then took Baby's face in his hands, and Baby made no protest as Cas tipped his face from side to side, looking curiously into his eyes and ears and mouth.

"What's this for?" Baby asked curiously as Cas sighed and finally took the hands from his cheeks.

"Show me your hands." Cas didn't answer, and Baby silently pulled up his hands and Cas took one of them, bringing it very close to his face and examining it.

"Oh." Cas said, freezing and looking at Baby's thumb intently. "I believe the phrase is 'shit.' "

Baby whipped his hand back and held it close to his chest, his grey-blue eyes widened. "What? What's wrong with me?" He tried to keep his voice from panicking.

"Your fingerprints." Castiel explained. "I've seen them before.  _Many_  times before."

Baby frowned. "I mean, not like I've had any formal eduaction or anything, but aren't humans supposed to have..you know,  _unique_  fingerprints?"

Cas nodded. "Yes, they are supposed to be. But you were not born human. Someone made you this way." Cas sighed, speaking on exhale. "My brother Gabriel."

Baby narrowed his eyes. "You're shitting me."  _Fuck_. This was exactly what he didn't want; Sam and Dean to go through another round with that damn angel.

Cas shook his head. "For angels, an image of the angel's vessels must be used if they want to create a synthetic human. Gabriel gets away with copying the skin most times to make doubles; it's the most discreet."

Baby ran his hands through his hair. "So..I'm technically Gabe's double?"

Cas shook his head again. "It's...complicated. You are the Impala, but in order to make you into a human Gabriel had to use one image from his own vessel to begin building. It's impossible to start from scratch. In this case, he used the image of his skin as the first required building block. Does that make sense?"

Baby pursed his lips. "Are you sure they aren't just similar?"

Cas bobbed his head. "The fingerprints are identical. And I have just enough grace to sense that it's my brother's spell that's on you."

Baby hid his palms in his hands. "Fuck. I don't want to be associated with that asshole in any way." He growled. "This blows."

He looked up at Sam with sad grey eyes. "Sammy, I'm sorry." He said waterily. "I'm so sorry."

Sam's eyebrows lifted in sympathy. "Hey, Baby, it's okay. It's not your fault."

Baby dug the palms of his hands into his eyes, tufts of black hair sticking up between his fingers. Sam realized that Dean must have been up by now, but he hadn't even come out for breakfast yet.

"Where's Dean?" Sam asked, looking around. "He's usually up by now."

"Probably avoiding me," Baby snorted bitterly.

Sam screwed up his face. "Why?"

Baby finally took his hand from his face, holding his head up with just one hand with his elbow propped on the table. "Me n' him had a falling out last night. After dinner." He said gruffly.

"Well, what happened?" Sam asked, looking very confused. "I thought you two were fine."

Baby shrugged and stood up. "I tried talking to him about something he didn't want to talk about." He said bitterly. "I'm gonna go wash off. I suddenly feel really dirty with all this talk about me walking around in  _Gabriel's skin_."

"Kay." Sam said, clearly the guy didn't want to talk about it right now. Baby roughly stood up, the chair legs squealing along the floor and strode heavily away, and Sam wondered what in the hell they'd fought about.

* * *

_The previous night..._

Dean finished cleaning all the dishes and putting them on the drying rack, he dried his hands and went to join Baby outside, his stomach already feeling a little pinched.

The man in the leather jacket was leaning his back on the outside wall, slowly taking drags of his lit cigarette, happily blowing out the opaque smoke with pursed lips.

"Hello, Dean." Baby sighed, finally pinching the cigarette between his middle and pointer finger and taking it from his lips. "I guess no one else was going to say anything, so I guess I have to take the wheel here. I can't believe John never did this for you. I just... _ugh_ , goddammit, I wished I could have been human then so I could say this to John."

Dean shoved his hands in his jean pockets. "Say  _what_ , Baby?" Dean got a little pinch in the bottom of his stomach.

"You know Dean, I know it wasn't just you 'adjusting' when you freaked when you discovered that I was male," Baby looked like he didn't really want to talk about this but had to as he took another drag of his cigarette, the smoke rolling out of his lips like dry ice and disinigrating in the chilly air. "You were afraid of what Sam might think, like it was going to give you away."

Dean frowned. This better not be going where he thought it was going.

Baby slid his greyish eyes over to look at Dean. "Is there...anything you'd like to tell me, Dean?" He frowned. "As a person whose been by your side all your life? Your father's side? Look, not as a brother. More like a..grandbrother."

"Grandbrother?" Dean laughed nervously.

Baby got a sad kind of pained expression. "Dean, seriously, I don't want to have this talk any more than you do. So just...do you have anything to tell me?"

Dean locked his jaw. "No," He bit out, looking away as Baby looked back at him with a hurt expression.

"Dean. I know you. I've known you your whole life. I knew John before you were born. Oh, fucking hell.  _John_." Baby looked angry for a second, his hand curling into a fist. "He never-" He swallowed his next words. Then his eyes softened and he looked away.

"John was so different before Mary passed. He knew too, Dean. He always knew. But he was too much of a prick to sit you down and just  _talk_  to his son." Baby sighed angrily and took another puff. "So, I guess here I am. Doing your father's job."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Dean said, his voice flat and bitter.

"Dean...you're bisexual." Baby sighed. "You have been your whole life. It's not high school anymore, Dean. And I hate that I have to be the guy to say this, but it's time you admit that to yourself."

Dean instantly clenched his hands into fists. "You don't know what you're talking about. You don't know me." He bit angrily.

Baby gritted his teeth together and squared off against Dean. "I know you better than you fucking know yourself, Dean. Don't ever accuse me of that again." He growled, his eyes narrowed and glinting in a steely kind of light.

"I carried you home from the hospital when you were born. I was the first place you slept the night your mom was killed. I've been T-boned by a semi-truck and flipped over by a hoard of swarming demons and taken a crowbar to the face, all for you. I've had blood splattered on my seats and carried your dead weight in the back seat after the hellhounds got to you and Sam was crying so hard he could barely drive. So yes, Dean, I  _know_  you." Baby snarled, his eyes flashing.

Dean locked his jaw and refused to say anything.

Baby's face softened when he saw how frustrated Dean looked. "You've always had a soft spot for Cas, Dean. Other people in the past too. And Dean..." Baby looked like he wanted to reach out and put his hand on Dean's shoulder but restrained himself. "Dean, I know John didn't think so, but fucking hell, let me just tell you that it's  _okay_."

Dean felt like simultaneously running away and throwing up.

"Baby. Don't ever talk to me about this again." Dean growled, looking at the ground and gritting his teeth.

Baby frowned. "This is the one time I'm saying anything. This is uncomfortable as hell for me too. But Dean; you have to tell Sam."

Dean met Baby's eyes, his own were narrowed. "I'm not telling  _anyone_. And you sure as hell won't tell him for me either. This is going with me to the grave." Dean grabbed Baby's black tank and twisted, shoving him hard against the wall he'd been leaning on. "The the damn  _grave_ , you hear me?"

Baby said nothing. Dean came closer and gritted his teeth.

"Fuck you." Dean spat. "Thinking you can just drop into my life and tell me what to do. I've got a balance going here, god dammit!-" He gave another small shove at this-"I'm not just gonna..tip the fucking scales! I'm  _happy_!" He pulled away, his eyes downcast and searching back and forth.

He was breathing hard, there was a tense silence as Baby shoved his hands in his pocket and locked his jaw.

"Happy enough." Dean mumbled.

Baby frowned. "Happy  _enough_ , Dean? You love this house. You love that Sam is alive and kicking. And you love Cas, Dean, you have for years. But you're not happy about that.  _Why_."

"No, I'm not happy about that!" Dean shot back, running his hand down his face in frustration. "It's not normal!"

Baby let out a frustrated groan. "It  _is_  normal, Dean. Why can't you just accept that?"

Dean didn't reply.

"God dammit John." Baby said on exhale, muttering under his breath, running his free hand without the cigarette through his dark hair. John should have sat Dean down a long time ago, and not let him grow so ashamed and let the walls build so damn high.

"Dean. I just want you to be happy." Baby's eyebrows tipped upward. "And having a damn lasting relationship,  _because_   _you've never had one ever_ , would."

Something had broken in Dean's expession. He turned away so Baby wouldn't see it.

"You don't talk to me." Dean growled, pushing his shoulders. "Just don't fucking talk to me." He strode back inside and slammed the door. Like  _hell_  he would tell Sam. Like hell he'd tell  _anyone_.

Baby sighed. He mashed out his cigarette. He suddenly didn't feel like smoking anymore.

* * *

Sam and Kevin and Cas didn't see Dean for another half hour. The three of them had books spread out on the table, trying to figure out how to

1) Summon Gabriel

2) Convince or force him to turn Baby back to normal and

3) Why the hell he even did this in the first place.

The first thing they saw of Dean all morning was when he ran into the living room, his eyes distraught.

"Where the hell's Baby?" Dean demanded.

Sam shrugged, turning a page in his book. "I dunno. He said he was taking a shower." He looked at Dean and frowned. "What the hell did you two even fight about?"

Dean frowned and avoided his gaze. "What the fuck did you guys tell him? He looked really upset the few seconds I did see him and now I have no damn idea where he is!" Dean gripped the sides of his head. "I searched the whole damn bunker!"

"We told him...Gabriel was the one who turned him human. Then he mentioned that you two had a falling out, and then he just..left." Sam answered, not liking the look on Dean's face.

"Anything else?" Dean asked.

"Well, he also said he wasn't quite sure how much longer he could take being human. That he didn't like it." Kevin said, and both Sam and Dean's faces fell.

"Then, he was just apologizing to me." Sam spoke up. "About the Gabriel thing."

He remembered Baby tapping his fingers on the table, fidgeting, his eyes narrowed, grey orbs shifting around, frowning.

"Shit- Sam, what if he thinks the only way to be a car again is to kill himself?!" Dean began to panic.

Sam's blood ran from his face. "Oh my god-do you think he really would think that?" Sam stood up from his chair roughly. "Dean, we gotta find him."

" _Baby_!" Dean hollered through the bunker, stalking through as fast as he could. He looked through the first room and saw no sign of him. His heart began to squeeze unpleasantly in his chest.

Sam was looking at the other side of the bunker's rooms as they sped through. " _Baby_? Baby where are you?"

For once, Dean wished they had a smaller house. He jumped at the sound of Sam slamming open a door, thinking it was a gunshot. He kept picturing Baby's grey-blue eyes glassed over and staring into nothingness..dark blood moving across the floor...

Dean was the first one to burst outside. Dean didn't know what he'd do if he saw the man's body. He'd already seen the bodies of enough loved ones, thank you very much.

Dean was breathing hard, looking around at the road that ran beneath a small hill. Maybe he ran away? God, if anything happened to him...

Finally, he heard the unmistakle splash of water on concrete, it sounded like the hose was running.

"Baby!" Dean rushed down the shrubby slope to where the Men of Letter's garage was, and he let out a sigh of relief as he finally saw Baby, and he felt his stomach drop with relief.

Now, he finally got to process what Baby was doing.

The man was standing the the driveway, fully clothed in his leather jacket, black tank and dark denim, hell, even his combat boots were still laced up around his ankles. He had the hose running full blast, and he was holding it over his head, shaking his head as his sopping black hair sent little crests of water flying. His clothes were absolutely soaked.

"Baby, what the  _hell_  are you doing?" Dean demanded, but his voice was a lot softer than he'd intended. He just couldn't shake the ice-cold feeling he'd gotten when he considered the fact that Baby might be dead.

Baby looked confused as Dean barrelled toward him. " _What_?! I needed a car wash!"

He did not expect it when Dean kept speeding toward him and wetly squished him into a tight hug. "You stupid bastard." Dean mumbled, hugging him tightly and feeling the water soaking into his clothes.

Baby dropped the hose and it gushed onto the concrete, he was a little delayed in wrapping his sopping arms around Dean too, wondering why he'd suddenly hugged him. "Jesus, Dean. Your heart's pounding a mile a mintue. What's the matter?" Baby asked.

"You were right." Dean sighed. "About me needing to open up to Sam. I need to tell my own brother. I've been an total asshole to you again and I'm sorry. I thought you  _died_."

Baby laughed and gave him a little squeeze."I said I was washing off like twenty minutes ago. Why in hell would you think I died?"

Dean covered his face with his hands. " _God_. Baby, you're gonna be the death of me." He finally scrubbed his face and looked up at the scruffy face that had grown so familiar in the past few days.

"You're the closest thing I've ever had to another brother, Baby. And if you say I should tell Sam...then I'll tell Sam." Dean forced himself to say.

"Good." Baby smiled brightly at him. "...I'm proud of you. And I'm glad I could step in for John, even though he should have done something in the first place. "

'Proud' was nothing John would ever say to him.

And it made Dean happy.

Baby then looked down at his waterlogged clothes, his arms shrugging out to the side. "I'm guessing by the way you're reacting to this, this isn't how to wash up." He laughed. Sometimes Baby acted wise enough to have been born in the sixties, and then other moments were like these.

Dean couldn't help but laugh too. "Jesus, Baby. Let's get you back inside." He let himself feel relieved, even for just a little while.


	10. Chapter 10

Dean led Baby back inside and straight to the bathroom.

He explained how the shampoo bottle worked, how to squeeze it, how much to use, and then he showed Baby how to work the shower knob.

"Sounds simple, right? Oh, and put the tempurature on warm. It's a lot nicer like that."

Baby needed Dean to help him untie his shoelaces ('What?' He'd insisted at Dean's dramatic eye roll, 'I was just created with these clothes on, man, I don't know what the hell you're supposed to do with 'em!), and Baby peeled off his waterlogged socks. Dean told him he'd wash off his clothes and meanwhile give him something else to wear.

Baby's singing filled up the whole house. And he wasn't very good and he was like that one guy who skips the songs on a CD every few seconds. It was like Baby was trying to bellow every single song with his human lungs that he'd ever played through his speakers.

"Hey hey mama said the way you move, gon make you sweat, gon make you groove. Ah-ah child said the way you swing, gon make you burn, gon' make you sting..."

"... I'm gonna fight 'em off, a seven nation army couldn't hold me back, they're gonna rip it off, taking their time right behind my back.."

"WHOAAA WHOAWHOA SWEET CHILLLLDDD O' MIIINNNEE..."

"..Teenage wastelannnddd, it's a teenage wassteelannnddd.."

"Cuz I'm TNT, I'm dy-no-miittee,  _TNT_  and I'll win the fight..."

"But I sttiiilllllllllll haven't foooooound, whaddi'm lookin' for!"

Dean had already thrown Baby's soaking jeans, socks, and shirt into the washer and hung up his leather jacket, then went around the house to pick up the laundry since he'd be doing a load anyway, and the guy was still going strong.

" _Baby_!" He banged on the door. "These pipes are old! No using up all the hot water!"

" _Dean_! Did you know that hair with soap in it is quite pliable? I made a mohawk Dean!" Baby called back over the rushing water.

Dean rolled his eyes. "Congratulations," His voice was riddled with sarcasm.

"I also made a beard out of bubbles!" Baby spoke up happily. "But it washed away." He added dejectedly.

"Man, you've been in there for twenty minutes! Time to get out!" Dean couldn't help but smile as he banged on the door again. "C'mon, I'll leave some clean clothes for you on the sink."

Dean pulled open the door and was met with the overly humid room, he stepped inside and put the pile of folded clothes; a pair of his jeans and one of Sam's shirts because Baby had larger shoulders than Dean anyway, and a pair of Sam's boxers that Dean stole because  _hell_  no, he was not giving up any more of his underwear after he had to give away at least half of it to Cas from before they'd gone clothes shopping for him since he'd wandered back to the bunker after the fall.

The rushing water finally shut off, and the rings had just started to shush along the pole when Dean reached out and quickly grabbed the shower curtain and stopped it from pulling any further. "I do  _not_  want to see your junk, man." Dean chuckled, grabbing a towel and draping it over the top of the curtain.

"My junk in the trunk?" Baby chortled, the towel slipping over the curtain as Baby pulled, and Dean covered his mouth to keep from snorting.

"You know, sometimes it's  _really_  hard to believe you're almost fifty years old." Dean chuckled, setting down the square of clothes on the counter by the sink. "I swear you're three sometimes."

Baby laughed as he dried himself off a little and draped the towel around his hips, tucking it in, and finally pulling open the shower curtain. "Wow. I can't believe humans get to do that every day!"

His eyes flicked down to the folded clothes. "I think I could figure out how to put these on," Baby said, stepping out of the tub. "You two have changed enough times in the middle of nowhere for me to know."

Dean looked at all the scars that riddled his chest as well as the scarred sigil on his stomach that Cas had put in place, and when he twisted around to grab Sam's folded green v-neck, Dean saw the scarred devil's trap on the right side of his lower back, as well as lines running along his shoulder blades and a large white scar on the top knob of vertebrae just below the nape of his neck.

Baby saw his looking as he pulled on the shirt. He reached back and rubbed the scar on the back of his neck. "Yeah, this. I'm a fourty-six year old machine, my gears are getting a little worn down."

"I keep forgetting how much shit you've been through." Dean spoke up. "Most people who've done as much badass shit as you have don't make  _bubble beards i_ n the shower." Dean had to chuckle again.

"Well, most people who've done as much badass shit as  _you_  don't enjoy  _gigantic rainbow slinkies_  from a kid's play place." Baby shot back with a gigantic, shit-eating grin. Grandbrother was probably the most accurate description for the guy. 

"Touché." Dean turned away to hide his smile and made his way out of the bathroom, clapping the doorpost twice. "I'll go fix up some lunch for everyone."

"Thanks, Deano." Baby called back, rubbing all the moisture from his dark hair. And he began humming once again, 'Paint It Black.' Dean felt like he had probably been missing someone he'd never met all this time.

* * *

Dean walked out to find Castiel was reading the newspaper again, as Kevin and Sam were doing all the hard work. He was circling things in one of the classified ad pages.

"Whatcha doing, Cas?" Dean asked, sliding up in the chair next to him. He looked at the pages and pinched his eyebrows together. Within the little boxes of text where tiny color pictures of puppies running in lawns and sleeping on fluffy carpets.

"Circling the ones I like." Castiel spoke up. Dean looked at the paper again. Every other advert was circled.

"Cas, the reason why we circle things is to set them apart. There's no use if you're circling everything." Dean chuckled. "Which ones that you circled do you really  _really_  like?"

Castiel looked back down at the newspaper, screwing up his face in thought. Finally he spoke up again. "All of these."

Dean shrugged. "Okay." He tried to stop himself from putting on a stupid smile. God dammit. Why was he so cute without even trying?

"This bunker would be a lot more lively with a dog." Castiel spoke up. "I know Sam would agree with me."

"What? Baby isn't a big enough puppy for you?" Dean laughed, standing up once again and making his way to the kitchen.

"Just because the Impala in a human form possesses qualities often seen in young dogs such as playfullness, kindness and high energy does not physically make him a canine, Dean. We would like a dog. A real dog." Castiel explained, indicating to the classified ads once again.

Dean ran his hands through his hair. "We?"

Castiel pointed to Sam and Kevin who were researching across the table from him. "They agreed with me."

Kevin circled something and didn't look up as he said in sing-song through gritted teeth; "I want no part in this..."

Sam shrugged. "I'm a dog person. What can I say. It would be..nice to have one."

"I'll see what I can do." Dean smiled and made his way back into the kitchen.

Castiel watched him go and his eyes followed Dean as he disappeared behind the doorway. Cas turned to Sam, his eyes squinted in confusion. "Was that a 'yes', Sam?"

Sam chuckled and transferred one peice of text to his notepad. "If you keep that up."

Castiel tilted his head to the side. "Keep.. _what_  up?"

Sam tried to cover up his little chuckle, covering his mouth and letting out a cough. "Never mind, Cas."

Dean emptied a few cans of minestrone soup into a pot and clicked on the flames. He stirred the soup and spoke up aloud. "A dog. A  _dog_. Never thought I'd go  _this_  soft." He stirred again and thought about how happy both Cas  _and_  Sam would get if they got a puppy.

He never thought he'd have a house and a dog and a kitchen and a bed with fucking  _memory foam_. He didn't think he'd have a lot of things. Some things were good, like how he and Sam finally had a home. Other things not so good; like being in love with someone who was right under his nose and not being able to bring himself to do anything about it.

"A dog." Dean repeated, shaking his head, but he couldn't help but get a smile pulling on his lips. "I swear to God..."


	11. Chapter 11

"Okay, so, this should work to summon Gabriel." Sam said as he looked down at the bowl of mixed ingredients. "Or, at least, it should. I hope."

Dean crossed his arms and shifted his weight from foot to foot. "Why wouldn't it work?"

Sam shook his head a little. "Gabriel's more powerful than we think. If he didn't want to be summoned, he might find a way to weasel his way out of it."

Dean, Baby, and Cas looked on, Kevin was out and about escaping the 'cabin fever.' "Well? What are you waiting for?" Baby asked gruffly, also crossing his arms. "I'll admit showers are 10/10 but all this other human shit is not worth it."

Sam took a deep breath, struck the match and dropped it into the bowl. The ingredients flared up, and all three of them could have sworn they saw a short human shadow in the designated spot before the whole thing exploded, coating them and the entire room with deep black soot.

"Dammit." Sam coughed, wiping the soot from his eyes in irritation. The three others were coughing and wiping off their faces as well. "I'm guessing he wants us to find him another way."

"Now what?" Dean managed to choke out, coughing hard again.

"I don't know. Damn. I really thought it would work." Sam wiped off his cheeks. "We should start by cleaning this up. Who knows what could happen if these weird ingredients are left here."

The stuff was much harder to clean than it would have seemed. All of them spent the whole day sweeping, scrubbing, dumping buckets of water, mopping, and just trying to clean away the majority of the ingredients from the annoying ritual gone wrong.

"I am so swamped." Baby said, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand. All of them were, and at least they'd cleaned it pretty decently. "How about you guys show me a flick on one of these newfangled boob tubes?" 

"You mean a movie on television?" Sam chuckled. 

"Oh, so I slip into old people lingo sometimes. Don't have a damn cow." Baby rolled his eyes, his cheeks reddening a little. 

"Well, I'm ready to knock back a few drinks and have a movie night." Dean said, wiping his hands off on a rag. "I don't want to smell soap for days."

The four of them squabbled about what movie to watch for a little while, and Dean felt like a little kid again, fighting with his siblings. Sam and Cas's vote for "Benjamin Button" overruled Dean's vote for "Fast and Furious 6" and Baby didn't vote because he'd never seen a movie before.

As the beginning for "Benjamin Button" rolled, Dean felt ganged up upon by his softy brother and friend and grumbled through the beginning of the movie about how things didn't make sense and that it was a stupid movie.

Cas was surprised by the whore house scene, when the old sailor convinces a young but seemingly old Benjamin to pay for sex.

"Dean tried to the same thing for me! How uncanny!"

Sam sprayed his beer all over the couch and had to bring a few paper towels to clean it up.

Things were normal and it was nice.

Dean got up to make some popcorn, and Sam followed him. He watched the microwave as the bag spun inside, and he knew Sam was in the room but didn't acknowledge it.

"Dean." Sam said gruffly, crossing his arms. "It's pretty clear you and Baby aren't fighting anymore, and I need to know what happened."

Dean bit down on his teeth and watched the little bag spin inside the microwave, the first pop could be heard. "Not now." Dean tried to dismiss it, but Sam squared off against him and frowned.

"Stop putting this off." Sam said. "Baby said he was talking to you about something you didn't want to talk about. What the hell did he mean by that, man?"

"It's not important." Dean said, refusing to look at Sam as he only watched the popcorn instead.

"It's important to  _me_ , Dean!" Sam said in annoyance. "Can't you take one minute out of your day and just  _trust_  me?"

Dean didn't answer him, and Sam didn't say anything either except a pissy 'fine'. The microwave beeped and Dean took out the popcorn. Then he took out the whiskey and poured himself a large glass.

"I would like one too, please."

Dean looked up and saw Cas was standing in the doorway, yawning a little and coming into the kitchen.

Dean shrugged and poured him a glass too.

...

"Dean, how many beers have you even had tonight?" Sam asked, laughing at his older brother.

Dean was actually crying, hiding his eyes with his palms as tears gushed from his eyes. The credits rolled along the television screen, his cheeks flushed red with the alcohol.

"Givvv 'im a break, he's had the samme 'is me." Cas slurred, pounding his arm to sling across Dean's back, and Sam covered his mouth with his palm to keep from exploding with laughter. "We're jus...jus havin a fun timme, righ' Dea?"

"This is  _nottafun_  time!" Dean shot back, more tears gushing from his eyes. "The humminbird was in the stoorm, Cas! In the  _storm_!"

"Why din'he hafta die?" Cas asked, falling over and almost crushing Dean in his lap.

"Lifis soo shourt!" Dean wailed, covering his face in his palms again as Baby and Sam elbowed each other furiously and snickered. "I wish..yunno,  _I_  had summon like that, yea? Like, a wife cuz I'm  _tyrd'a_  bein lonely all 'a time, dammit!"

"Ayy-men." Cas's head lolled, and Sam and Baby could barely hold it in.

"Errrone I love fuggin'  _dies_ , Cas! Errrione!" Dean slurred angrily. " _I_  dersrvve a lover too, yano?"

"Preachh," Cas's eyelids fluttered closed and he leaned on Dean's shoulder, the beer bottle slipping from his heavy hand and clunking to the floor and rolling under the couch.

Dean straightened up and pointed at Cas with a limp finger. "Yooou. Lemme tell ya somefin'. Illlovyou man. I went' n died n yoou wereda one who brunged my back, man."

"Nah," Cas fell to the other side of the couch, his arms splayed out drunkenly. "Nah, man."

"Yeea! Yeeayadid! Yadid that, Cas!" Dean looked frusterated. "I wanndidta...wandidta fankyoou."

"Nah," Cas spoke up again.

"Dood...dood yeran angel and Im nuthin specail, yer sooo...like.. _impordat_ , yaknow?" Dean slurred, leaning back and shutting his eyes, sinking into the couch.

"Nah, nah'm not." Cas's eyes were slowly closing, he slumped down on the couch and burped.

"Illyveoo, man." Dean heavily patted his shoulder. "Cas. I sid illyvuuo."

"Okay, that's my cue to leave." Sam laughed, grabbing the empty popcorn bowl and standing up. "Hey. Baby, I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you slept in Dean's bed."

Baby stood up and looked conflicted. "You sure?"

Sam nodded at Dean, who was squishing Cas as they both snored loudly, Cas had an arm hanging over the side of the couch, his cheek squished to the armrest, he let out a heavy snort as Dean snored loudly into his ear, draped over his shoulder.

"He's hammered, Baby. Just let him be." Sam brought the bowl to the kitchen, laughing to himself the whole way.

"I want to know why Cas got so hop-happy too." Baby laughed. "I can't say I ever imagined him getting that blitzed."

"I know, huh? G'night, Baby." Sam smiled at him and went to his own bedroom. He couldn't stay mad at Dean for long. But what the  _hell_  was he keeping from him?

...

"Do you want some ginger ale or something? It might help a little." Dean asked, quietly as to not disturb his headache, and Cas nodded just a little. Cas was in his bed with an awful hangover, and Dean tried to mask his embarrassment when he'd woken up this morning feeling like shit and squishing Cas with the angel's whole body practically under him. Good thing Cas had still been asleep when Dean woke up, or Dean didn't know what he'd do with himself.

Of course Dean felt like shit too, but this was the first hangover Cas had had, at least with Dean there to observe it, and Dean felt bad because he'd been the one to give him all the alcohol in the first place.

"Pain Relievers?" Cas piped up, and Dean frowned. He was reluctant to give pills to him ever since he'd fallen from grace; he couldn't even stand to think about the broken excuse for a man he'd seen in 2014.

Dean reached out and pushed a small lock of black hair from his forehead. Cas moaned and snuggled his cheek into the pillow. Dean knew he wouldn't have a fever, but felt his forehead anyway. It was warm, not fever-warm, but Cas must have liked Dean's colder hand because he smiled a little.

"I'll be right back, Cas." Dean began to slide off the bed, but Cas touched his knee and wanted him to stay.

"Why did we drink so much last night?" Cas asked, and Dean chuckled.

"I know, man. Hangovers suck. Especially because this is your first one." Dean answered, but Cas frowned and shook his head.

"No. I meant why. You were upset and drinking to cover it up. I was only drinking because...I didn't want you to be the only one, to completely embarrass yourself." Cas explained, moaning a little and rolling to his side.

Dean's expression softened. "You knew you were past your limit but you kept drinking anyway?" Dean slid back on the edge of the bed. "To try and cover for me? With me?"

Cas nodded a little and buried his face in a pillow. Dean felt his chest swell.

"You didn't have to do that for me, Cas." Dean said, reaching out and pushing a lock from Cas's forehead but then deciding to do more than that as he ran his fingers through his hair, pushing it back off his forehead.

"Why were you upset, Dean?" Cas asked quietly, and Dean frowned. It felt like a "now or never" situtation, and right now the 'never' option was looking a lot nicer.

"Because...I've been really stupid for a long time about something." Dean vaguely explained, sighing. "And I was too much of a coward to tell Sam...even after all this time, and that really felt like shit, so naturally I'd drink."

"Dean, please tell me what the something is." Cas pleaded in a tiny voice. "I hope I didn't do this for nothing."

Dean licked his lips. "I didn't tell Sam that...I like people from both genders." He explained. "I don't know if he'd be okay with it, and..I don't know. I guess  _I_  still fell like I'm not. Like I'm not okay with it."

Cas opened his eyes and stared into Dean's face. The blue was ambiguous and Dean couldn't tell what emotion the ex-angel had at the moment.

"Both genders? Boy and girl?" He asked, and Dean pressed his lips into a line and nodded.

"It's called being bisexual." Dean spoke up. "My dad would have hated me coming out if he were still alive."

Cas turned the other way so that Dean was just left staring at the back of his head of dark hair, his blanket tugged over his shoulders.

Dean thought maybe Cas wanted the conversation to be over now that he knew what he'd been upset about. Dean didn't blame him for wanting to stop talking, he knew how killer his headche would be especially without painkillers.

Dean started to get up when Cas spoke up again, so softly that Dean was surprised he didn't miss it.

"Dean?"

Dean shoved his hands in his pockets, he was now standing up. "What's up, Cas?"

The man still didn't roll over to face Dean, and he mumbled into the pillow. "Do you..like me?"

Dean felt his face grow hot. He cleared his throat. "Of course I like you, Cas. You've always had my back for almost five years."

Dean knew he'd probably frowned at that when he said back,"That's not what I meant." He turned back around and Dean felt like he was under a microscope with those blue eyes staring at him, looking through him.

"The  _something_ , Dean. Do you like me like  _that_? The boys and girls?"

Dean frowned, but sat down on the edge of the bed again. He couldn't say no or yes, it felt like. He chose to say nothing.

He was surprised with Cas's fingers curled gently over his knee. "You carry so much shame, Dean. Why?"

Dean could slice open his arm without so much as a drop of water in his tear ducts, but his vision was suddenly blurry and he felt warm water smooth down one of his cheeks. Why  _did_  he carry so much shame? Baby told him it was okay. John treated it like something that just needed to be avoided at all costs. But Dean realized he was the one being the hardest on himself.

"Yeah, Cas." Dean said hoarsely. "I do like you." He wiped the tear away with the back of his hand, but he didn't move as he was hyperactively aware of Cas still touching his knee. They were both quiet for a few seconds.

"May I kiss you, Dean?" Cas asked softly.

Dean felt the tear drip from his other eye and he quickly wiped it away. He laughed wetly through his tears. Shit. This was happening. "Okay," Dean croaked, nodding, his throat was all squeezed up and he felt like he could barely breathe.

He didn't notice that he'd closed his eyes, and he felt Cas's very soft lips press to his, a tiny bit off center as he kissed a little bit to the side of his mouth. Dean opened his eyes just in time to see Cas pull away, a hiccup bumping Dean's chest, the small beginning of a sob.

He felt Cas's arms around him, and the tears stung as they flooded into his eyes. He blinked out the stinging tears and his chest began jumping involuntarily with sobs. Cas held him a little tighter and began to smooth slowly up and down his back with his palm, tucking Dean's head next to his neck and above his shoulder.

"Don't be sad, Dean." Cas said quietly, smoothing his palm over his shoulderblades. "I like you too."

* * *

Dean spent a long while with Cas as they talked. Dean told the guy everything, from when he'd first realized he'd liked boys too, when he realized John didn't want to know and that he learned he should not say anything, to what he planned to say to Sam when he'd tell him. They did not kiss again, only talked. And Dean felt...lighter.

Dean finally got up, brought some ginger ale for Cas and two painkillers because he felt bad denying him any when he was hurting. He gave them to Cas, Dean ran his fingers through his hair and told him to rest after he'd swallowed the pills. Cas looked at him with those burning blue eyes and said he thought that the hangover was worth it now. Dean felt his chest swell and kissed him again, a tiny peck. Then, he left.

It took a few minutes for it to hit.

Cas  _kissed_  him.  _And_  he said he liked him back.

Holy

 _Shit_.

It had been so easy, actually. Moving from friend to something else. Contrary to what he always thought it would be. Dean jumped up, sprinting through the bunker to find Baby, who was also looking at classified ads for pets. "Hey, Dean, what do you think about-"

Dean threw his arms around Baby and clamped him tight. Baby wheezed. "Dean, what in the hell-"

"Thank you, holy fuck, thank you so fucking much!" Dean squeezed him tighter and Baby struggled to resist, wheezing again.

"Are you trying to strangle me?  _Getoff_!"But he smiled when he saw that Dean was beaming. He had a pretty good guess as to what had happened. He kissed him on the temple and roughed up his hair. "Aw, I'm not ready for my little boy to start dating." He joked. 

"Shut up!" Dean shot back lamely. 

"What? I'll always see you as a ten-year-old, that's the whole truth." Baby chuckled. He cleared his throat. "Look. Three rules." Baby said when Dean finally pulled away. Baby put up his pointer finger. "One. Cas doesn't get to drive me, okay? No matter how close you guys get. I'm  _your_  car."

Dean chuckled. "Fine. God, you're so damn jealous all the time."

Baby shrugged. "Don't flip your wig, man. It's just the way I am." He put his middle finger up as well.

"Now, rule number two. No sex in the backseat. And I'm not just talking about with Cas, I mean with anyone. That shit with Ana was awkward as fuck for me and I'd rather you not do that anymore, babe."

Dean flushed a bright scarlet. "Uh...okay." He managed to say, even though he felt extremely embarrassed. "What's three?" He coughed, trying to change the subject.

"Rule three, don't you dare break his heart, Dean. I'm serious." Baby narrowed his eyes at Dean. "Look, as your family, I'm saying that Cas is spiffy as hell. You were wailing on and on last night about never having a lasting relationship and-" Baby brought his fingers up for air quotes- "that you 'deserved a lover too' and that you were 'tired of being lonely' ."

Dean frowned. "Yeah, right. I didn't say that shit." He crossed his arms.

Baby laughed and raised an eyebrow. "Uh, yeah, Dean, you did. And you were basically proposing to Cas by the end of it."

Dean blushed again. "Shuddup."

"Anyway, what I meant to say is that he might...be the one who sticks around, Dean. I just get that kind of vibe from him. So don't be an idiot and do something stupid to him just because this is your first experience with a guy and you're ashamed or embarrassed or being an idiot. Get it?"

Dean nodded. "Got it." Dean was so glad he had Baby instead of John to get him through this, finally after keeping it all to himself for so many years. He had no idea what would happen if John was here instead. His three rules would probably be 1) don't ask 2) don't tell and 3) I don't care if you like both, you're still only going after one. It was enough to make Dean frown.

"Good." Baby smiled and waggled his fingers. "Three rules, that's it. Now, go do whatever the hell you young whippersnappers do these days." He waved him away. "Stop bothering me. I'm trying to pick a dog here. And it better not piss on my upholstery, Dean, I'm serious. I will haunt your ass."


	12. Chapter 12

Dean had been prepping himself all day for when he was going to tell his brother, he'd decided that he'd tell him at dinner. So, he was draining the pasta when Sam came into the kitchen to grab the chili flakes.

"Hey, uh, Sammy." Dean started, clearing his throat and avoiding his brother's eyes as he watched the water drain from the spaghetti. "I know I've been kind of, um, unfair to you lately."

Sam threw up the chili flakes and caught them again one-handed. "This is about the fight you and Baby had, huh?"

Dean nodded. "Yeah. About that. Sam..." He sighed and took the pot, pouring the pasta into a large bowl. He set it down, looked at it for a second, and then finally looked to Sam. His little brother had a puppy-eyed look in his eyes. Dean's hands felt extra clammy.

"Sam...I..wanted to tell you this for a long time and I don't know how, and you know I hate all that sappy stuff, so...I wanted to tell you..I'm bisexual." Dean said, a little less confidently than he was hoping. Sam got this look on his face like 'that's it?'

"Oh," Sam answered. "I mean..thats.. _it_?"

Dean was visibly surprised. "That's it?" He echoed.

Sam laughed. "I mean, Dean, I thought it was going to be something, you know, _bad_."

Dean gaped at him. "You don't think that's bad?"

Sam smiled. "Dean, I thought you... _knew_ I knew."

Dean was speechless. "If you're embarrassed of me or something..I'll..I guess I'll.." He stammered, and Sam put the chili flakes down on the counter, and next thing Dean knew his face was pressed into a shoulder covered in flannel.

"Dean, no, I'm not embarrassed. Who do you think I am?" Dean enjoyed the hug for another second. Here comes round two.

"I'm..seeing Cas." He blurted.

"Dean. I think you're seriously underestimating my observation skills." Sam's chest bumped with laughter underneath Dean's cheek.

They were quiet as Sam smoothed down his back and Dean shut his eyes. "Thank you for telling me." Sam said quietly. Dean let out a breath of air he didn't know he'd been holding. "And just don't put too much sauce on the pasta this time, okay?" Sam asked before leaving to sit down.

"So-" Sam started, clearing his throat as he sat down at the table. "I mean.." Sam looked at Cas and Dean. They stared back, Cas took a little bite of his food and looked at Sam with a confused expression.

"You're..you guys are like, a couple now?"

Dean shrugged, twisting his fork in the pasta. "Yep."

"I mean, like-" Sam seemed a little flustered. "I mean...you guys are just acting so.. _normal_."

Dean began twirling his fork around, and he didn't look up at Sam again. "Yeah, well, it's gonna be different this time around." Dean mumbled to his food. "He's...more important to me than that. He sure as hell ain't a one night stand, so I'm not gonna treat him like one. It's...different."

"Thank you, Dean." Cas said shyly.

"We're taking stuff slow." Dean told Sam. "For him, sure, but..mostly for me."

Sam smiled a little. "That just seems so..I dunno, _unusal_ for you, that's all."

"Fine, you want a kiss?" Dean looped his arm around Cas's shoulders and kissed him on the side of the head on the temple. "There," He said curtly, pulling away and clearing his throat, continuing to eat. Cas blushed and dipped his head.

Sam's eyebrows tipped upward like he was looking at a puppy playing with a kitten or something.

Dean scowled. He thinks we're  _cute_? Oh, hell naw.

"Hey. We're two very manly men who just happen to like each other, okay? Shuddup." Dean looked down at his pasta and tried to force the blush off his face.

"Well, it's about damn time." Sam laughed.

Dean dropped his fork. "What?"

"I'm not blind, Dean. I've wondered if you two were ever going to get over the skinny love and eye-fucking stage." Sam chuckled a little. "You guys are actually kind of c-"

"Sammy, if you say the c-word I swear to God I'm going to rip your lungs out." Dean said grumpily.

"Cute. Cute, cute, Dean and Cas, so cute." Baby teased, a cheeky grin on his face as he arched an eyebrow cockily.

"What part about  _manly men_ don't you understand?" Dean shot back, pretending to be angry, but had to hide a smile under his palm. He'd actually rather have the teasing- it meant Baby thought it was normal enough to tease, and wasn't doing that awful tip-toe around it thing.

Dean's cell phone suddenly began ringing in his pocket. "Well, if you'll excuse me, I have to answer my manly phone and take a manly call."

"Dean, I don't believe technologies such as phones have specified genders." Cas spoke up, his eyes all squinty and confused. Dean guffawed a little, standing up and tipping Cas's head toward him and kissing his hair, then began to walk away as he answered his phone.

"Hello?"

" _Dean_! Geez, I haven't talked to you in forever! I mean, I know I stopped by after the fall, but I was going to be passing through the area anyway and I knew I had to call you! How's everyone doing?"

Dean smiled. "Hey, Charlie."

"Charlie!" Baby piped up happily behind him, grinning widely. "Tell her to book it and get her ass down here asap!"

Charlie sounded confused as she spoke up again. "..Dean? Who's that?"

Dean cleared his throat. "Uh..see, we were on a case and someone put a..erm..spell on our car."

Charlie gasped loudly on the other line. "Holy crap! Your Impala's a human? Tell me, is it like the  _perfect_  gijinka?"

Dean brought his eyebrows together. "What the hell's a jigenka?"

"No, Dean, it's  _gijinka_ , and never mind." Charlie then spoke up, even more exciteable than before. "Oh my god, can I talk to Baby?"

Dean shrugged. "I don't see why not. But wait, hey, what time do you think you'll get here?"

"Uh...I think by tommorow." Charlie answered. "Okay, now let me talk!"

Dean rolled his eyes, came over and handed Baby the phone. Baby smirked, took the phone, and leaned back in his chair, grinning.

"Hey, sweetheart." He said in his rough voice, tipping back in his chair and crossing his ankles on the table. Dean rolled his eyes. He was so cocky for a car. 

Charlie squealed a little bit. "Dean, this  _better_  not be a joke!"

"I wish it were a joke, babe. I'd  _way_  rather be a car right now." Baby told her, grinning a little more.

" _You're a DUDE?_!" Charlie asked in astonishment. "Holy shit! I  _knew_  Human!Impala would be a guy! Oh my god, I  _so_  called it! All the other fans can kiss my ass!"

Baby laughed and covered the mouthpiece, calling out to Dean. "Hey, Dean. At least  _someone_  knows what's up."

"Well, not saying Fem!Impala wouldn't be hot. She so would. But I mean, obviously, it makes perfect sense. Like they had a male siren and it's pretty obvious that family means so much more than a hot piece of ass, I mean, I'm sure you're still a hot piece of ass but-" Charlie was rambling, and Baby and Dean tussled as Dean tried to wrench the cell phone back.

"Hey, Charlie?" Dean spoke up again, shoving Baby's reaching hand away. "Um, I'm gonna have to let you go. But we'll see you soon, okay?"

"Okay! Peace out!" She said excitedly before the phone line finally went dead.

Dean laughed when he saw that smug look on Baby's face. "Wipe that stupid expression off your face, you old piece of scrapmetal!"

...

It was movie night again in the old bunker, and even though a lot had happened since they watched "Benjamin Button", things still felt a lot the same. Tonight it was once again narrowed down to two options, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" or "2012".

"Dean. Harry Potter is so much better than some crappy, fad of an apocalypse movie." Sam rolled his eyes.

"It was not a crappy apocalypse movie! It was an  _okay_  apocalypse movie!" Dean shot back.

"All in favor of 'Harry Potter' raise their hand." Sam spoke up, raising his own, and Cas also raised his hand.

" _Cas_!" Dean gasped in irritation.

"I'm sorry, Dean, but the movies your brother picks often prove to be very good."

Sam shot Dean a bitchface and Dean flipped him off. They started the movie, Dean made popcorn and Baby kept commenting that the flying Ford Anglia was hot, laughing when it booted the luggage out of the car and driving away. ("I swear to God if I could, I would have done that to you guys too many times to count.")

"Well, you keep saying she's  _hot_ , but what does she look like?" Sam asked with a mouthful of popcorn.

"Well, red hair, obviously. And little blue overalls, same color as the paint, but they're all tattered from living in the forrest. But she's got wings and her hair always is in a little braid with twigs and leaves in it." Baby sighed and squished his cheeks. "She's a tough little nugget like me, getting smashed by that tree and still being able to drive like that!"

And Sam had to explain that there were things called 'fictional characters' and that it wasn't usually the best idea to get crushes on them.

It wasn't long before Cas fell asleep, leaning on Dean's shoulder. The movie finally ended and Dean gently shook his shoulder.

"C'mon, Cas, movie's over. Time for bed." Dean rolled his shoulder a little. "C'mon. Like hell I'm carrying you."

Cas groaned but didn't wake up. Dean rolled his eyes but smiled. "Heavy bastard," He insulted him affectionately in a low voice just shy of a whisper.

Dean grunted and he picked him up, transferring him from the couch into his arms, Cas's head lolling to his shoulder as he lifted.

He shot Baby and Sam a look that could kill. "This never happened, you hear me?" He hoped he could keep his waning tough-guy rep up with the occasional barked out comment. 

"Geez, Dean, enough with the PDA!" Baby said extremely sarcastically. Sam and Baby hadn't even seen the two kiss on the lips yet.

"PDA stands for Public Display of goddamn Affection, and last time I checked I'm in my own fucking house." Dean shot back, a tiny smile on his lips.

"Goodnight Dean." Baby called after him, but there was a kindness to his tone.

"Good _night_ , Baby." Dean began making his way out of the room, turning around with Cas's face peeping over Dean's shoulder, and Cas  _smiled_.

Baby sputtered and spoke up. " _Yeah_ , right! Did you see that smile? That fucker was  _not_  asleep!" Baby laughed, nudging Sam on the elbow. "That sneaky little angel was just too lazy!"

Sam smiled a little. "Dean  _wanted_  to carry him. He's acting like he did in high school."

Baby shrugged. "Some of his best dates were in high school. You know, the night I talked to him...he told me he was 'happy enough'. I think we can get rid of that stupid second word now, huh?"

Baby looked to Sam, who had a faraway look on his face. "Hey, I swear you'll find someone, okay? And tell Dean I told you you get to drive me every single date you two have. No exceptions."

Sam chuckled. "Like  _that'd_  work out."

"I'll find a way. I won't let him start the engine, that's what I'll do." 

They suddenly were interrupted by the doorbell ringing. They exchanged a glance. Who the hell would be ringing the doorbell now? It was almost midnight!

Baby went to get the door. "Sam. Behind me." He barked, as Sam started to creep up next to him. Baby opened the door, but instead of a person it was a greenish, rolled up tarp, with a tiny plastic model car of the 1967 Impala, the kind they sold in toy stores, smack dab on top of it.

"It's our missing arson!" Sam said in disbelief. "How they hell did it get here?"

The model car had a message carved into the plastic, scraping off the black and revealing the white plastic underneath, it was probably carved with a knife. On the trunk it said in crude capital letters "FIND ME", and on the roof it continued with "IF YOU", finally on the hood, "WANT TO PLAY".

" 'Find me if you want to play?' " Sam spoke aloud. "This is from Gabriel, isn't it?"

Baby didn't answer, but was instead examining the model car with sad eyes, turning it over and over in his hands and smoothing down the carved letters with his thumb. Longing was shining in his eyes. 

Sam drew his eyebrows together. "Hey, Baby, you okay?"

The man hesistated but shook his head. "I need some time to myself." Baby held the car in one hand and pulled out his pack of cigarettes with the other. " _Fuck_."

"I'm sorry. We're trying to get you back to normal, Baby, we just...don't have much to work with here." Sam shoved his hands in his pockets. "I'll..I'll leave the door unlocked for you, alright?"

Baby nodded silently, and Sam softly shut the front door. Baby slid down the wall and sat with his legs outstretched, placing the model car on his lap and lighting his cigarette after a few flicks of his lighter and taking a long drag, feeling the hotness fill his human lungs and he closed his eyes, pretending for a second it was exhaust.

He opened his eyes again and looked at the model car, turning it over in his pale human hands. He traced the fender with his thumb and flicked one of the little toy wheels. He ran his fingers over the windows and played with the rear view mirror.

He leaned back against the wall, shutting his eyes, letting his fingers trace over everything on the model Impala, feeling every line of the little plastic car. He missed his old body, his old self, his old job. He breathed out a puff of smoke, sighing on exhale, "Fuck you, Gabriel."

He felt something different. A tiny hairline crack that was not meant to be there. Baby stiffened and opened his eyes. He followed the crack with the pads of his fingers all along the base. He dug his thumbnail into the crack, and surprisingly, it gave.

"You think you're so clever." Baby said to himself, running his fingernail through the crack and prying open the model centimeter by centimeter. "I'm getting my damn body back, Gabriel, and you can't stop me." He said through gritted teeth, his nail was tearing but he kept going the length of the car.

The plastic model finally opened with a tiny pop, falling perfectly in half. On the bottom half, carved into the grey plastic of the model's floor, numbers with letters.

 _Coordinates_.

'Find me if you want to play.'

Baby dropped the toy in disbelief and the two halves clattered to the floor. He could practically  _taste_  the petrol and miles of road gliding under his tires. His heart gave an excited pump.

He jumped up, threw the door open and hollered excitedly inside. " _Sam_!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> •Gijinka (擬人化; Western term Humanization) is the Japanese meaning of "humanoid", "personification", or "anthropomorphic". I just felt like Charlie would know that kind of thing, seeing she's a fan of pretty much everything, and would refer to Baby like that. She probably likes anime too.


	13. Chapter 13

"You're still awake, aren't you?" Dean asked as he made his way down the hallway. "Jesus, you're so _heavy_." Dean grunted with a involuntary smile.

Cas mumbled apologetically into his shoulder sleepily.

"You sonofa-" Dean panted. "Christ, you're heavy!"

Dean was about to carry him off to his bedroom, but a step past his own Cas spoke up softly. "Can I..." He mumbled. "-don't wanna be alone."

Dean spun back around and lowered the practically boneless Cas gently down onto his bed. He groaned and rolled to his side, tugging at the blankets with fumbling hands to try and pull them over himself. Dean helped him out, lifted the covers and Cas wriggled underneath.

"I'm jumping in the shower, kay?" Dean placed his hand on his shoulder softly. "I'll be back in a few minutes." 

Cas had seemed like he was sleeping, but when Dean stepped back into the room with a towel wrapped around his waist the bed was empty, his wrinkled sheets pushed aside as a diagonal slat of light fell across the bed from the door. "Cas?" Dean called out uncertainly. What if something bad had happened to him? Was there something in the bunker trying to hurt them? Where was he?

Dean then spotted him in the corner of the room, pulling on something. He was probably changing into pajamas.

Well, Cas had actually probably seen something on television about what couples were supposed to do, and he'd surprised Dean by coming up to him wearing nothing but a pair of Dean's nicest silk black boxers. He seemed very nervous.

"Where did you find those?" Dean asked, thoroughly confused when Cas came up and kissed him without a word. Not that that was a bad thing, he wasn't complaining about this. 

Cas fell backward onto the bed and lifted his arms, very child-like, and beckoned for Dean to come into them as he kept them floating in the air. Dean obliged with a chuckle, coming forward so Cas could wrap his arms around his back. "This is, uh, unexpected." Dean laughed and pressed down on him, kissing him very deeply. Cas's fumbling lips let him take the lead, and he snaked his hand up into his hair. 

Dean gently flipped and pulled Cas on top of him, and Cas walked on his hands to meet Dean's lips again. Dean slipped a little more tongue into this one, which seemed to slightly surprise the ex-angel. Cas pulled away with a wet pucker, his eyes searching Dean's face and flitting back and forth.

"Hm?" Dean hummed. "What's up?" He sat up more with his fist digging into the mattress and he rested his back against the headboard. "Just...wow." Cas said softly, touching two fingers to his shiny lips. "...I enjoy kissing you, Dean."

Dean chuckled and rolled his eyes playfully. "Oh c'mere, you ol' softie." He beckoned for him to come closer, and Cas took the sides of his face with Dean's ears between his thumbs and this time he tried to take the lead when he moved his lips against Dean's. He still wasn't exactly _good_ at it, but Dean thought that was almost sweeter. He really wanted to try.

Cas pressed a few kisses and tugged at the towel around Dean's waist.

Cas was quickly overwhelmed.

"I-I don't know how to do this." Cas admitted, his face burning pink. He cupped both of Dean's thighs in his palms and very uncomfortably just _stared_ down Dean's erect dick like someone on the highest diving board who really, _really_ didn't want to jump.

"You just-" Dean began, a blush burning very hot on his cheeks. Everyone else he'd been with had either just gone to town, or done some dirty talk before starting. Nothing like this. "You, uh, just put it in and uh..y'know, um..."

"This was a terrible idea," Cas mumbled and pressed his temple to the side of Dean's thigh in defeat, closed his eyes and his cheeks burned very bright. "I-I don't want to be bad at this for you."

"Hey, if you're not ready yet-"

"I can't." Cas said in a small, strangled voice. Dean quickly moved to cover up himself with his towel again and Cas pulled backwards, covering his face like an ashamed child.

"Oh, Cas, it's okay." Dean stood up off the edge of the bed. "Let me get dressed and we'll...let's just talk. Okay?" 

Cas sunk down onto the edge of the bed with a sigh and he slumped into himself dejectedly. "Okay," He mumbled. 

Dean pulled on a tee shirt and a pair of boxers, scrubbed his damp hair one more time with his towel and sat next to the moping angel. Dean reached out and rubbed the curled back in front of him in small, gentle circles. Cas sighed at the soothing touch.

"But I..Dean I can never be..be _sexy_ for you." Cas covered his eyes in embarrassment and turned away. Dean couldn't help but have a chuckle bubble up into his throat. He clapped his palm over his mouth to try and stop it. "Is this what this is about?" He couldn't help but chortle.

"This isn't funny!" Cas hid his face in his arms now. "I'm not like...like those girls you like. All those girl with the..the pretty lace and curly hair and mile long legs..and...I don't know, Dean. I'm not anything...like that."

"Yeah, you're not, y'know, uh...porn-starry..." Dean tread very lightly. Cas whimpered and sunk a little lower into his hands covering his face. "That's not why I'm with you, Cas."

Cas looked up with glassy eyes. "I'm not even good at kissing, Dean. I just want to be _good_ for you. At everything. And I'm not. I can't even compare to what you've had, and I..." He croaked hoarsely, his eyes folding closed again.

"This is really worrying you, huh?" Dean asked. Cas folded his arms, hunching himself into them like he wanted to curl up and disappear. He nodded slightly, and Dean slid his arm along his shoulders and pulled him into a secure hug.

"Don't be." Dean replied, resting his chin on his head, and Cas could feel the vibrations of his throat as he spoke. "We're doing just fine, Cas. I promise."

Dean rubbed his hand up and down. "You're not just some one night stand to me. So what if you don't know what you're doing? I don't either. You're just the opposite of all those slutty women I've screwed and then snuck out in the morning, you know. That's why I like you." Dean explained softly. "I know you'd go to the ends of the earth for me, those girls would sell me out for a pack of cheap cigarettes."

Dean let go and ran his hands down his face and then slipped his fingers up into his hair. "I never..y'know, let myself think this stuff before. It fucking terrified me and I tried to stop it and shove it way down but...Cas I love all that stuff about you. I can admit now that I...I like your bulkly little hairy legs more than those shaved slender thighs and I like they way you wear my stupid plaid boxers instead of all the lacy panties and garters and shit and your messy hair and little stubble and- God I'm so _into_ you Cas."

Cas rested his head on his shoulder. Dean chuckled nervously. " 'Never admitted I liked all that stuff about boys before. Definitely not aloud, not even in my own head." Cas snuggled closer and rested his head on the crook of Dean's neck without a word, and planted one small kiss on the side of his neck. Dean chuckled and felt his chest expand, and for a second he could barely breathe.

"Try to get some sleep, okay?" Dean whispered, and lifted the covers for him again.

 "Mmhmmm." Cas hummed softly in agreement. He was already falling asleep. Dean kissed him gently on the temple and pulled away, tugging the covers to over his shoulders. He took in his face, Cas's features relaxed and his eyes darting around a little behind the lids. He was so fucking gorgeous. It was very new for him to admit things like that to himself, but, well, baby steps.

It was kind of nice sleeping together like this. No, they weren't spooning or cuddling, but just having Cas there curled up safe and sound beside him was enough for tonight. His soft, rhythmic breaths and the body heat that seemed to soften the cold blankets Dean was so used to having sleeping alone were comforting.

"You're really fucking sexy, Cas." Dean whispered and carded a hand through his hair.

Cas made an embarrassed groan. 

Dean smiled and tugged the blankets higher. 

"Dean." Cas said sleepily into the dark, taking a pillow and putting it under his cheek. "I have a question." 

"Hm?" Dean answered. "Ask away."

"I want to know how it went with Sam."

Dean laughed a little. "It was... it went well. Very anti-drama, I guess."

"Good," Cas croaked.

"Hey, you can ask me that second thing later," Dean smiled. "Get to sleep, Cas."

"No. I want to ask now." Cas said stubbornly. "I've decided I want more tattoos."

Dean perked up at this. "What made you think of that, Cas?"

"I need  _something_  to remind me, Dean. I'm slipping." He frowned, finding and clasping Dean's hands. "I forget. I sometimes forget that I'm an angel." His voice began to waver, he pressed his lips together.

"What were you thinking about getting?" Dean asked in a hushed voice, gently squeezing his hands back.

"I want wings. I want a cross right inbetween them. And my name in Enochian." His eyelids started to slip closed. "And I'd like you to take me as soon as you can."

Dean smiled and cupped his face, gently bringing his lips to Cas's. "I think I can do that."

Dean closed his eyes and brought his face close, so that just the tips of their noses were just barely touching. His thumb grazed his sharp jawbone, his fingers pushed into the coarse hairs on the back of his head. His heart fluttered excitedly.

Cas hummed lightly as he finally pulled forward and kissed him, his fingers combing even higher up on the back of his head.

"I think I'm going to like this." Cas said quietly when their lips parted with a soft pucker. Dean opened his eyes and gave him a confused glance.

"Like what?"

"Sharing the bed." 

Dean laughed and they shared a few more sleepy kisses, and it was clear that Cas was doing everything he could to just stay awake.

"Goodnight, Dean." Cas snuggled into his pillow. "Don't forget?"

"I won't." And the guy was already snoring by the time he pulled his covers up again.

* * *

Dean sighed, sitting on the couch and wringing his hands in his lap. Baby came up to him, still toting around that stupid little toy Impala like it was a teddy bear, the hood and trunk duct taped together. They'd copied the coordinates, and were planning on leaving as soon as they could to a seemingly random spot in California.

"Why're you so nervous?" Baby asked, coming up and sitting with him on the couch. "Dude, you freaking love Charlie."

Dean shook his head. "I don't know. I mean... I don't know what she's going to say to me. She's definitely going to be much more.. _exciteable_  than Sam was."

Baby chuckled. "Yeah, that was one of the least exciting stories I've ever heard."

Dean shrugged.

Baby laughed and eyed Dean. "I swear, Dean. You beat yourself up way too much sometimes."

Dean sighed nervously and wrung his hands again. "I know."

"Look. If she starts, like, happily attacking you I'll just swoop in and woo her with my charm." Baby winked, and Dean turned his gaze off Baby and instead looked at the hands in his lap.

"..Promise?" Dean asked, and Baby clapped him on the shoulder.

"Look. You'll be  _fine_." Baby laughed a little. "Dean. This is freaking  _Charlie_."

The doorbell rang, and Dean straightened up and went to answer the door.

There was the little redhed, and she silently threw out her arms for a hug, a little smile on her face. "There's my special little monster hunter."

"Hey," Dean hugged her back, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her hair. "Nice to see you again."

When she pulled away, she had a puzzled look on her face. "Are you sick or something?"

Dean brought his eyebrows together. "Ah..no?"

Charlie tipped her head to the side. "You're like..talking in such a low voice."

Dean gulped. "Look, Charlie, you're such a good friend, and I wanted to tell you-" His eyes flicked to Cas, and Charlie's eyes widened.

"No.  _Way_. Oh, I  _knew_  my gaydar wasn't broken!" She said happily, clasping her hands together. "When did you two get together?"

Dean looked a little uncomfortable. "Oh..uh.."

" _HELLO_!" Baby quickly swooped in, coming and leaning on the doorpost in front of Dean, blocking him off, acting like a loyal guard dog to defend Dean.

He flashed her his biggest grin. "Aren't you happy to see me too?"

"Wow! You're just like I imagined!" Charlie piped up excitedly, reaching out and pinching Baby's scruffy cheeks. "Look at how  _cute_  you are!"

Baby frowned and twisted away to get her hands off of pinching his cheeks. "Hey, I am not cute. I'm a sexy killing machine."

"I take that back, then. You're not cute, you're  _adorable_." Charlie patted his scruffy cheek, and Dean swept the door open. "Well, come on in, Charlie." She pushed inside with a little spring in her step.

Baby frowned. " _Sexy killing machine,_ " He said under his breath again, like he wanted the last word.

Dean cleared his throat and eyed Baby.

"There's my jolly green giant!" Charlie laughed when she saw Sam. Sam frowned and glanced down, noticing that he actually was wearing a green flannel. "Har, har." He said, opening up his arms and she bumped into his chest.

"Hey. Seriously, when did Dean and the dreamy angel get together?" Charlie asked through gritted teeth, and Baby pounced once again.

"Hey, where the hell's  _my_  hug?"

Dean rolled his eyes and facepalmed. He knew Baby was loyal as they come, but he was being a little too dramatic. Oh, well. It was better that he cared, right? Crap. And Dean  _did_  make him promise to help.

They settled down, and Dean told them he was scheduled to go in with Cas today to get his new tattoos, and Sam was going to go out with Kevin, Baby and Charlie to go pick out some 'groceries' (even though they were planning on going to the pound and picking up a dog to surprise the both of them).

Dean told Charlie he'd be back to see her again, and Dean and Cas took an old car from the Men of Letters garage, much to Baby's displeasure. They grabbed their money and were gone.

Charlie stared at the door after they closed it to leave. "I mean, they're acting so... _normal_." Charlie turned to Sam.

"That's exactly what I said." Sam smiled. "That's actually the only part that's weird to me."

"Well, I guess they've practically been dating for years. Just neither of them knew it." Charlie grinned. "It's sweet."

"Dean would probably kill you if he heard you say that." Sam chuckled. "I guess it is, though. Cas makes him really happy."

Charlie covered her mouth with her hand. She finally got herself together and cleared her throat. "You're a good brother, Sam."

Sam laughed. "Look, if you want to freak out, no one's stopping you."

Charlie did a little punch-kick dance and did a little off-key song about how she was always right so much so that she was practically psychic. She finally collected herself and brushed the hair away from her face. Sam was snickering.

Charlie played with her red bangs and acted like nothing happened. "So, ready to go pick up some 'groceries'?"

Sam slung his arm over her shoulder and roughed her shoulders a little. "I can't believe you just  _danced_  because of my brother's relationship, you weirdo." He laughed. "..You're not visiting often enough."


	14. Chapter 14

"You know, you don't have to hold my hand, Dean."

The air was filled with a loud buzzing, and Cas was lying propped up on his stomach as the artist worked on his back, his arms dangling down as Dean held one of his hands in his lap.

"I was living with a gigantic square piece of rock shoved up my abdomen, by me, with no painkillers whatsoever. So I think I'm okay."

Dean didn't let go. "Well, you know what, suck it up because I'm not letting go." He joked.

The tattoo artist gave them a very strange look.

_C'mon, Dean, think of a good excuse!_

"Uh...we're in a..um..play together and we're trying to stay in character for the duration." Dean felt like smacking himself in the face. Okay, that was lame. But movie stars did it all the time, right? Like he read something about Leonardo DiCaprio doing that or something? Whatever.

The guy, a meaty man with full sleeves on both arms, a reddish face with a white handlebar mustache, just nodded like he hadn't even heard them.

Dean took a peek at the ink so far- Cas was getting wings that started at the tips of his shoulderblades and went off to his upper arms, and right between the tips of his shoulder blades was where he was getting the old-style cross, over his spine. He'd decided on getting his name down on his hipbone on the right side, but would get that another time.

"I know we'll get the real ones back, Cas. I promise." Dean squeezed his hand a little. "You won't be human forever."

Cas sighed and closed his eyes. "I hope so."

Dean pushed his fingers through his hair. Something else was troubling him, he could tell. "What's wrong?"

Cas frowned, keeping his eyes shut. "I feel that if I'm not an angel, I'm nothing."

Dean frowned. "Don't say that. You mean everything to me and Sam."

"Not now that I'm useless." Cas replied, exhaling as he seemed to deflate a little.

"You're  _not_  useless." Dean growled. "Just because you can't zap around or heal or any of that shit doesn't mean that we love you any less. You're still Cas. I love you for that, Cas, I don't care if you're an angel or not. You'll always be my angel, that's how I see it."

Dean smiled a little. "I don't care if you have your grace or not. I love you."

Cas's fingers within Dean's hand curled together. Dean squeezed back, and he heard a little sniffle from Cas. He looked up and reached out to smudge a warm tear off his cheek.

"No one has ever said that to me before." Cas said quietly.

"Oh, Cas." Dean smiled at him, his expression said enough. "You old softie."

Dean heard another sniffle. What? That wasn't from Castiel, was it?

"You guys are amazing actors," The tattoo artist dabbed at his eye. "You'll have to write down what that play you're in is called."

* * *

Charlie screwed up her face. "It smells in here."

Sam laughed. "Well, what did you expect? It's the pound."

Kevin peered into the first cage. A patchy cat was shoved into the far corner, peering out at them with goopy eyes, brown crust lining down its white cheeks. The cat hissed, even more bald spots could be seen as its hairs stood on end. "Yuck." Kevin voiced. "Where are all the, you know, cute little puppies and kittens?"

Sam rolled his eyes. "We're getting an animal and giving them another chance. They're not all going to be perfect, they've lead rough lives."

Sam went to talk to the woman about the dogs they had at the moment, and she led the four of them down to one of the cages.

"We've had her in here for about a month now. We picked her up after the man who owned her went to jail, she's about two years old and was a victim of animal abuse." She pointed to one of the grey cages, were a smallish German Shepard was cowering, her big brown eyes shiny and begging as they looked up at Sam. Her caramel-colored legs were trembling.

"You seem like an animal lover. She never bites or is violent, she's a timid little girl. I'm sure with some love she'll open up. If no one takes her soon we'll have to put her down." The woman explained. "Or I suppose I could show you some of the smaller dogs instead. Those seem to be the most popular."

"No need for that," Sam dismissed quickly. He couldn't seem to tear his eyes away from those shiny brown puppy eyes. Sure, she wasn't exactly what they thought they'd get: a fresh little puppy with tiny paws and a big belly who cuddles and waddles around. This one looked close to full grown, and she was skinny with a dull coat and a history.

"We'lll take her." He announced, not wanting to even consider looking at the other dogs.

He had looked into those brown eyes and seen himself.

* * *

Cas had the bandages wrapped all along his back, and they were going to come back to get his name later. Dean helped him down the few steps, even though he didn't really need to be helped. They were making their way back to the car, their wrists bumping together, and Cas intertwined his fingers with Dean's. Dean was pleasantly surprised as he felt his face flush for a second. They didn't talk.

A group of tatted punks where walking together down the sidewalk, and snickered and pointed at them.

Dean narrowed his eyes as they passed, his best "back off or you'll be sorry" face.

"Go back to the gaybar, faggots." One of the punks, he had gigantic gauges and a bull nose ring, snickered and flicked his cigarette in their direction.

Dean ripped his hand from Cas's and the kid didn't even know what hit him when Dean punched him as hard as he could, his fist impacting satisfyingly with his jaw. The kid staggered and fell to the floor, touching his jaw and looking at Dean with surprise on his face. Dean surged forward again and threw a punch that had the kid's cheek flopping to hit the concrete, some blood spotting onto the concrete from his mouth. Dean was reeling up again when Cas grabbed his fist.

"Stop," He said quietly.

Dean unclenched the muscles in his arms and stood up. He was breathing hard and angrily. One of the girls with cropped, neon green hair flew forward and helped the beaten kid back up on his feet.

Dean locked his jaw and his hands balled into fists. "Any  _other_  of you fuckers want to call me a faggot?"

He was met was silence as the kids collected themselves and scurried away like rats.

Dean turned to Cas, hoping he hadn't scared him. The ex-angel's admiring facial expression was hard to describe.

Dean gently wrapped his arms around Cas's shoulders, so he wouldn't hurt his new tattoos, and pulled forward and closed his eyes, he just felt the tips of their noses pressing together. Dean shuddered out a breath and pressed his forehead to Cas's.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have held your hand in public." Cas said quietly, his eyes were closed also. "I didn't mean to."

"That's not why I'm angry." Dean breathed, sighing. Their lips were just centimeters away, but Dean did not pull forward for a kiss. "I...just can't believe they said that to me." He shuddered out another breath. Maybe he wasn't ready to do this.

Cas wrapped his arms around Dean's shoulders, he planted one palm on the back of his head and brought his head forward just a little to kiss him. Dean melted into Cas's arms, letting the ex-angel take charge as he let himself be comforted. His hand hurt from punching that kid, he kept his eyes closed because he didn't want the tears to spill out.

He got a flash of anger. He wanted to shove Cas off and yell at him to stop. He wanted to scream at him that this was all his fault. His guilt churned, dark and heavy, at the bottom of his gut. He tried to force that feeling away.

Cas pulled away with a tiny sucking noise. "We can go to a different part of town for the next tattoos, Dean."

Dean kept his eyes closed and ran his fingers through the coarse hairs at the back of Cas's neck, curling his fingers over the nape and finally opening his eyes, his forehead still pressed to Cas's. The ex-angel's head was bowed, his blue eyes closed.

"We shouldn't have to be ashamed, Cas." Dean said quietly. "Even though the world makes it seem like we should."

"I won't hold your hand anymore, if there's people around." Cas said, finally opening his eyes and looking at Dean with a guilty expression.

"Don't be ridiculous." Dean scolded lightly. "You can hold my hand whenever you want, Cas."

Cas examined Dean's bloodied knuckles and tenderly scrubbed the red away with the corner of his shirt. He smudged his thumb lightly along the knuckles. "Are you okay?" He asked, feeling the small swell already.

"Just fine." Dean answered with a small smile, and Cas slipped his fingers into the gaps of that bloodied hand.

Hands intertwined, they then walked back to the car.


	15. Chapter 15

"Surprise!" Sam and Charlie said at the same time, when they saw that Dean and Cas were finally back from the tattoo shop. Kevin had gone to take a shower after he'd gone to the pound, and Baby surprisingly had already gone to bed.

Dean was confused at first when he saw what appeared to be a empty kennel.

"You guys picked up a puppy already?" He eyed and Cas and made a joke. "Did you keep in mind all the dogs that Cas circled?" He chuckled.

"She's not exactly a puppy." Sam explained. "The woman at the pound said she's probably around two years old."

Dean came forward and peered into the kennel, and saw a pair of big brown eyes staring out at him from the back of the kennel. The dog's black ears flatttened onto the sides of her head and she pressed herself a little farther onto the back of the kennel.

"Hi, little girl." Dean said softly. "What are you doing all the way back there?"

Sam frowned a little. "She was a victim of animal abuse. But we should be able to have her open up with some TLC."

"The Lifetime Channel?" Dean asked. Sam shot him a face.

"Tender Love and Care, idiot." Sam answered, chuckling just a little.

"Well, let's open up the kennel and see how she does." Dean said, stepping back as Sam unlocked the front bars, and the grate swung open. The dog still did not come out, and let out a tiny whine.

"Okay. Maybe a little more TLC." Dean spoke up. "Have you guys thought of a name for her yet?"

Charlie shook her head, but smiled. "My vote's for 'Hermione.' I've heard German Shepards are really smart. She even kind of looks like her."

Sam laughed. "Her Patronus was an otter, not a German Shepard."

Charlie put her hands on her hips. "Well, she looks a little like an otter with those cute little puppy eyes." She argued back.

"Okay, no more speaking geek." Dean rolled his eyes. "Sam? What was your idea?"

Sam shrugged. "Eleanor Rigby. We could call her Ellie."

Dean frowned. "That's not a very..optimistic Beatles song, Sammy. We want a name that's gonna show that she's gonna have a  _better_  life now."

Cas cleared his throat next to Dean. "I have a suggestion." He said quietly.

Dean turned to look at him. "What do you think, Cas?"

"Grace." Castiel said. "It's optimistic? I don't have mine right so...we could still have a little piece running around the bunker."

Dean's expression softed. "You know what, I like that."

Sam looked back down to the kennel. "I like that too, actually."

"Grace it is, then." Sam smiled.

Charlie pouted. "I still liked Hermione."

...

_The next morning..._

"Where the hell's Baby?" Dean asked everyone as he put out a plate of pancakes. Sam shrugged, already reaching over and stabbing a pancake in the middle and taking a bite from the side as he held it up with the fork underneath.

Dean lifted an eyebrow. "I go through all this work to make you guys an awesome breakfast and you eat it like barbarians?"

Sam flashed him a smirk with his chewed up pancake and Dean snorted and rolled his eyes. "You're so annoying."

"I dunwo." Sam answered with a full mouth, swallowing. "My guess is that he's still sleeping."

Dean left the table to go wake him up, waiting to eat his breakfast later. It was super weird that Baby wasn't up yet- he usually was up by the break of dawn and showering by then.

"Hey. Baby." Dean opened the door to the spare room he'd been crashing in. "Geez, this room is stuffy."

Baby groaned and rolled over. He'd been sleeping on the floor, he never really did like beds. The blankets were lumped all around him and all the pillows were stuffed in a mound over his head. He finally pushed the pillows away and squinted at Dean.

"I have another sensation," Baby grumbled, he looked like shit. His upper and lower lids on his eyes were puffy and there were blackish swatches under his glassy eyes. His face looked a little pallid, and he blinked groggily at Dean. He cleared his throat wetly and sniffled.

"Baby, I think you're sick." Dean opened the door and came up and crouched next to Baby. "Stuffy nose, swelling sninuses, sore throat?"

Baby sat up and ran a hand down his face, sighing. "Fuck.  _No_. I can't be sick!" He looked to Dean with glassy blue-grey eyes. He rubbed his eye and sniffled. "Being sick means human  _bodily fluids!_ " Baby shuddered. "Being a car was so much cleaner..humans are so.. _moist_."

Dean shrugged. "Well- that's one disgusting way to put it."

Baby frowned and wrapped the blanket around himself, sniffling and looking at Dean. "How long does this shit take? I can't be sick, we have to go down to California and follow the coordinates to find Gabriel! And change me back!"

Dean frowned. "A couple days. I don't know."

Baby groaned and stuffed a pillow over his head. "Fuck this shit." Baby groaned. "Dean- I can just suck it up and go anyway. I  _have_  to get back to normal."

Baby groaned and slid up to his feet, wrapping his blanket around his shoulders and coughing wetly into his fist.

"Do you want some soup or something?" Dean asked, pulling the door open for him.

"Why? Does that help?" Baby graveled. "Ugh. Dean this  _sucks_."

"Sorry, Baby." Dean replied. "We'll head toward California as soon as we can, okay?"

"We'd better. Being human is not fun." Baby sniffled and then sneezed loudly. " _This is disgusting!"_ He shuddered as he saw the snot. "Where does all this stuff even  _come_  from?"


	16. Chapter 16

"Here, pup! Aren't you hungry?" Sam asked, putting down a bowl of dog food into the tiny area they set up with a blanket and small surrounding gate. The dog lifted her head but didn't come forward, not until Sam had backed away enough.

Baby was sick and sleeping in his room, Charlie had gone on her way, and Kevin had shut himself off to do more work. For some reason Cas was having one of his "off" days again. He'd get them a lot when he'd first wandered back to the bunker, when he'd clam up and stay in one place, his eyes looking into nothingness. Sam always wondered what he thought about when he'd have those days.

Dean sat with him on the couch, his arm wrapped around his shoulders as Cas's eyes, half-lidded, stared as he rested his cheek on Dean's shoulder, looking just a little bit to the right of the television as Dean rubbed his shoulder a little, watching one of those lame middle-of the day soaps. "You wanna talk about it?" Dean asked only once, his voice sweet yet husky, and Cas simply shook his head, slipping his lids over his eyes. "Okay," Dean replied, kissing him lightly on the hairline and going back to watching television.

So, now all Sam had was to play with the dog.

He extended his hand and tried to come forward to the dog who was gulping hesitantly at the food, she stopped and lowered her caramel-and-black head, her ears flattening as she whined a little.

"Come here, Grace. I'm not gonna hurt you." Sam said gently, in his best animal voice. "I just want to pet you. It would be nice."

He tried inching forward just a little more and the dog took a step back, staring at him with those gigantic shiny brown eyes. "It's okay." Sam moved forward again and finally, the dog didn't move back. He slowly moved forward, finally he gently touched her ear and smoothed down. Her eyes never left him and the hair on her back stood on end. Sam gave her another soft pet, and she was still gaurded until he brought his hand away.

"One day we'll have you cuddling like there's no tommorow." Sam smiled at her. "Maybe you could come on hunts with us. Use your doggy instincts?" He smiled at the dog and she stared blankly back.

"Maybe if you talk enough to her, she'll talk back." Dean shot out, snickering.

"Jerk!"

"Bitch!"

...

Dean had thought Cas had fallen asleep when they'd been watching tv together, but he was wrong. He finally spoke up after a long time of them both being silent, Dean gently nudged his shoulder.

"The guy told us to take the bandages off after 24 hours. Let's do that, okay?" Dean guided Cas gently to stand up by the arm. "We should stop moping around. And you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

Dean led them to the bathroom, and Cas sat patiently and pensively on the toilet as Dean ran the water, just enough to cover the base of the tub. Cas silently went and sat on the edge, staring at the white tiles.

"The guy said we have to use warm water when we first take off the bandages, then wash it so it doesn't scab up." Dean explained, taking a washcloth, dipping it in the bathwater and dabbing at the bandages.

Cas sighed a little and slid his eyes to meet Dean's as Dean dabbed at the bandages covering his back. "Thank you."

Dean smiled a little. "You don't have to thank me, Cas. I'm gonna take care of you."

Dean began to peel the bandages off slowly and carefully. The tattoos looked even better than he remembered them. The inked feathers were beautiful, as well as the gorgeously intricate cross inbetween his shoulder blades.

"You look like such a badass, Cas." Dean smiled, kissing the nape of his neck before he took a pump of soap and dipped his hands in the bathwater, lathering until he got suds. "Now, I can't scrub with a washcloth. So tell me if it hurts, okay?"

Cas silently nodded and Dean ran his palms down the smooth skin of his back, washing away the traces of blood from the cross first and then working on the backs of his upper arms and his shoulders for the wings.

"I would like to tell you why I am sad, Dean. But I don't know how." Cas started, and Dean gently ran his palms down Cas's upper arms.

"You know you can tell me anything, right?" Dean answered, dipping a cup into the water and watching as the suds slid away, revealing the bold lines of beautifully realistic feathers once again.

"I don't only want my grace back for myself." Cas started, bowing his head as Dean gently washed the tiny remaining blood completely from the tattoos. "There are things... I want to do for you."

Dean dabbed at the wet inked skin with a soft towel. Once he was all dry, Dean hugged him from behind and tucked his head next to Cas's, holding his hands on his bare stomach. Cas closed his eyes, sighed and placed his palms softly over Dean's. Dean felt Cas relax and lean back into his clothed chest and Dean felt his own muscles relax.

"Would I get to see your wings?" Dean asked cautiously, and Cas nodded silently.

"They are black. Jet black and shiny with a sheen of purple or blue, I've been told, like a raven's feathers." Cas explained. "No one has ever..touched them before."

Dean hugged him gently as Cas leaned more into him, speaking softly into his ear. "I know I'll get to see them eventually, Cas."

"And there's something else you're not telling me, isn't there?" Dean asked, unwinding his arms from under Cas's arms and grabbing the tattoo ointment.

"Yes." He answered, just as Dean began to apply it like lotion. "It will be..hard to explain to a human."

"Well, I'm not just a regular human, am I?" Dean teased, gently spreading the ointment to be evenly coating his tattoos.

"No," Cas finally smiled just a little, the first one today. "The process is called 'grace-union.' When two angels..." Cas started, then frowned and touched his lip with thought. "When two angels love each other.."

Dean's lips had to curl into a smile. "You're giving me a sex talk, aren't you?" He chuckled. "Oh my god...so angels have, like, mojo sex?"

Cas had to smile a little again. "No, Dean, it is not 'sex' because it is not of the flesh. It is called union."

Dean looked like a kid in a candy store. "Oh my god...you wanted to have mojo sex with me?"

Cas avoided his eyes and blushed furiously. "It's much cruder when you explain it that way." Cas cleared his throat. "Again I...I've never.."

Dean wrapped his arms around Cas and kissed him deeply, Cas was tentative at first but then kissed back just as hard.

"That's the best news I've heard all day." Dean smiled once their lips parted. "Could you...tell me what it's like?"

Cas hesitated. "I've never done it myself, but I understand how it works." He held Dean's cheek with his palm, and Dean waited for him to begin.

"First, I would reach out with just a tiny piece of my grace." Cas explained, his voice low and rumbling. "And I would touch your soul." He kissed him briefly on the lips, and pulled away, his eyes already darkened as his pupils were blown wide. "Like that."

"You would..kiss my soul?" Dean asked, his eyes crinkling up at the corners. It was kind of the cutest thing he'd ever heard.

"...Yes." Cas explained. "As a way to ask for permission. If your soul wished for me to enter, you would know. It would evoke a sort of..reaction."

"Then what?" Dean whispered, he felt his eyes fluttering. He was trying to imagine it. _  
_

"Then I would enter." Cas continued, pressing his forehead to Dean's and taking the sides of his face. "Like this. Then...I'm not quite sure. The two graces would mix together, but I don't know very much about it. The angels do not talk about that, that part is private."

"What does it feel like?" Dean asked.

Cas shook his head. "I wouldn't know first hand. But angels have told me that it's quite- blissful. The opposite of lonely. Your soul is filled with another's and the connection is deeper than any touch of the flesh."

Dean ran his hand through Cas's dark hair, combing through all the way to the back. "I wish I could feel your soul in mine, Cas." Dean whispered, and he felt Cas's lips press to his and he felt a warm tear transfer onto his own skin.

"Shh. It's gonna happen, okay?" Dean whispered, holding the back of his head gently.

Cas nodded silently and let Dean wrap his arms around him, Dean felt another tear patter to his shoulder. "I love you. As a human or as an angel."

"I love you too." Cas replied, kissing Dean on the jaw, as Dean then tilted his head to have him land on his lips. They began to move together, Dean nibbled on Cas's lips as the ex-angel took in a small gasp and wrapped his arms around Dean's shoulders.

"Bedroom?" Dean grunted as their lips parted for just a second. Cas was already pulling him out the door.

...

"Hey, Dean? Where did you put the pup's wet food again?" Sam opened the door without even knocking. "Oh-"

All Sam saw was Cas's back, muscles clenched as he crouched over Dean, his tattoos black and starkly contrasting against his pale skin. He deeply kissed the man underneath him, dipping down like an lion crouching, as Dean had his hand pushed through Cas's hair, black tufts sticking up between his fingers. Dean's hips- still donning his denim jeans- rolled against Cas's hips as he pulled him closer by the hand on the back of his head.

"Shit! Sam, get out!"

Sam covered his eyes with both palms and jerked away. "Oh my g- oh, Jesus fucking Christ!"

Cas stopped kissing Dean and they both looked back with surprise to Sam, their legs tangled together as they paused for a second, Dean propped up on his elbow with Cas holding himself up with his palms on either side of Dean, his blue eyes wide and innocent as he looked to the (now vacant) doorway.

"Sam! You have to knock!" Dean bellowed irritably down the hallway that Sam had already stumbled back down, his eyes still covered with his palms.

Dean looked to Cas, his eyebrow lifted as he shrugged. Cas quickly moved his head forward and pushed their lips together so hard their teeth knocked.

Sam rubbed his eyes like he wanted to bleach his brains as he stumbled out to the living room, plopping down next to Baby, who was bundled up with a blanket hooding his ruddy face as he watched 'Pimp My Ride' on some old retro channel. Baby flicked his glassy eyes to Sam and finally smiled.

"Oh my god- Sammy, you look like you've seen a ghost!" Baby laughed, which quickly transformed into a fit of rough coughing.

"Don't ask." Sammy mumbled, rubbing his eyes once again.


	17. Chapter 17

"How are you feeling?" Dean asked Baby as the guy refused to come to the dinner table that night for dinner.

"Like shit." Baby sniffled. "Not just 'cuz of the cold. Dean, I want my old body back. Please. I want to leave as soon as possible to get to those coordinates Gabriel sent us. For all we know, this most likely is some stupid ploy to keep himself entertained, with multiple fucking hoops we have to jump through. Just like TVland. He made you go through a ton of shows, not just the one. And the sooner we start to solve this the sooner I can just be  _me_  again."

Baby looked at Dean and sighed. "Look. I'm sorry that I have to drag you away from this again. I know exactly what's happening here."

Dean drew his eyebrows together. "What..what do you mean what's happening here?"

"You and Sam never had childhoods. Or even proper teenager years either. Dean, you're swept away in this teenage romance with Cas and Sam's got himself a dog just like he wanted when  _he_ was a teenager." Baby spoke up, coughing raspily into his fist.

"Please. Just solve this case you're in with me and then you can all be forever young and do all that crap you've always wanted to do. Hell, take Cas to the fair and get stuffed animals at the booths and win Sammy a goldfish or whatever you young kids do these days. I just want you to drive  _me_ there." Baby looked up at Dean with sad greyish blue puppy-eyes and Dean had to feel bad.

"Should we wait out this cold or what?" Dean asked, crossing his arms over his chest. He didn't really want to go on a road trip all the way down to the West Coast right now, especially now that he had his own home and could make home cooked meals. (Frankly, he never wanted to eat more fast food for as long as he lived). Plus he liked his memory foam bed (especially when Cas curled up next to him) and he wasn't looking forward to those squeaky, scratchy motel beds again anytime soon.

Baby shook his head and rubbed his already reddened nose. "No," Baby kept shaking his head. "I'm fine. This only bothers me because I'm unfamiliar with it. Pain or discomfort ain't a new thing for me, Dean. It wasn't so comfortable living in a twisted up body for months after a crash." He rubbed his nose again and stood up.

"I'll start putting some supplies together. And I don't think we can head all the way there in those vintage old Batcave cars."

Dean frowned. "So, what do suggest we do?"

"I'll take care of it." Baby said gruffly, massaging his sinuses.

* * *

Apparently, it's very easy for a former car to hijack another car. Even with a killer headache and a cold.

Baby simply walked all the way into town one day, saying he didn't mind walking or running since that was basically all he did as a car, and then hitchhiked to more towns over, to God knows where.

Baby finally drove back to the house after being gone all day long, rolling up in a slightly beaten silver Lexus RX 2008, blasting music, a cigarette out the window, donning sunglasses. He honked and Dean and Sam came outside.

"Where the hell'd you get those shades?" Dean laughed, ambling up to the car.

"A hitchikee gave 'em to me." Baby mumbled. "Said I looked like shit." His arm that had been dangling out if the car bent upward and he took a long drag from the cigarette pinched in his fingers. He was like a guy out of a goddamn movie.

"That was nice of them." Sam chuckled.

"I'm not denying a free pair of sunnies." Baby shrugged. "Plus this car was impounded indefinitely. She was calling my name.  _Oh, Baby, come drive me! It's been such a long time since I've stretched my legs...to speak proverbally!"_

Sam screwed up his face as Baby parked. "Man- are you  _high_?"

Baby chuckled. "How the hell am I supposed to know there's a difference between exhaust-sticks?" He climbed out and clapped Sam on the shoulder.

"Hey. I finally got to ride in one of those yellow VW vans. Those guys sure were generous with their exhaust-sticks. But they tasted kinda weird. And they were wearing interesting clothing. One of them was wearing an Indian headdress." Baby chuckled again. "Dean, what's a 'Coachella' ?"

"Okay, that's enough hitchiking adventuring for you to last a lifetime." Dean said, clapping Baby on the back and coming up and examining the stolen car.

Just thinking about Baby walking along the road with his black leather jacket and his thumb sticking out, getting picked up by a VW full of Hipsters on their way to Coachella, taking hits with them on his was to steal a car, made Dean snort and laugh again.

_What a guy._

* * *

"Okay, Kev. Plenty of food in the fridge, if you need money you know which drawer to look in." Dean slung the duffle of his clothes over his shoulder, nodding toward Kevin. "You can hold down the fort while we're gone, right?"

Kevin frowned. "Dean, I'm really not a dog person."

Dean eyed Grace, sleeping on her pile of blankets they'd made for her, and shrugged. "Everyone's a dog person. You just gotta...believe or some crap. Just walk her and feed her in between study seshes or something. I will give you a hundred dollars if you can pet that dog by the time we get back."

Kevin shrugged. "Deal."

Dean flashed him a grin. "No keggers."

Kevin laughed, a little embarassed. "Shut up," He smiled. "Be careful, okay?"

"See ya, Kev." Dean began making his way out the front door as they honked the car horn.

* * *

"In my mind I'm going to  _California_ , can't you just see the sunshine-CMONSAMMAY- can't you just feel the moonshine? Ain't it just like a friend of mine, to hit me from behind? EVERYONEDAMMIT- Yes, I'm going to  _California_  in my mind!" Dean was bellowing, changing the lyrics from the James Taylor song "Carolina In My Mind".

Sam groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Dean it's been ten hours that we've been on this road trip and I am  _not_  singing."

Sam and Cas were sitting in the back, and how Cas was hugging onto his pillow and napping was beyond Sam when he felt the bass from the music vibrating behind his eardrums.

Baby was in the passenger's seat, he had his arms folded on the dashboard as his chin was resting on his arms, staring out longingly as the road glided by, he hadn't said much since he and Dean had got in a tiny spat about how Baby  _needed_  to be in the front seat, and that he wished he was the one who was driving them on a road trip, and that they'd waited too long to follow the coordinates anyway.

"Hang in there, Baby." Dean said once the song had ended and the radio announcers were drolling on again, he reached over while keeping one hand on the steering wheel and rubbed the man's shoulder.

Baby groaned and rested his head in his arms which were folded on the dashboard, burying his red and swollen nose into the black leather on his arms and sneezing loudly. He never tore his eyes from the asphalt speeding by.

"Dean, I want my old body back." Baby mumbled slowly in a muffled voice, his face pressed into his arms still, his head bowed as a gust of wind lilted a few pieces of black hair.

"I know, Baby, we're on our way. We're trying." Dean patted his shoulder again. Baby didn't respond.

It was only a few minutes later that he noticed the man's shoulders shaking, moving up and down as his ribcage squeezed in out with sobs. Baby was crying. He didn't even see him express  _anything_  like this so far.

"Hey, you okay?" Dean shot out. "Baby?"

"Can you pull over?" Baby replied, still talking into his arms. Dean swung the car off the side of the road and killed the engine. There was a moment of silence before Baby took a long sniff and opened the car door, stumbling out and sitting hunched over on the side of the road, hugging his knees to his chest and looking out into the flat, brownish desert wildbrush.

Dean went to go after him when Sam grabbed his shoulder to restrain him. "Hey. Just give him some space. Gabriel turned me into a car once, remember? I was only in that body for half an hour and it was pretty much hell. He's been a human for like two weeks, Dean, just let him have a moment."

Smoke quietly blew away with the wind as the car-turned-human sat and smoked. He never turned around and didn't look like he was planning on getting up again anytime soon as the three of them looked at his curved back for a while.

Dean and Sam were surprised to hear the back door opening as Cas climbed out after around fifteen minutes.

"Cas..?" Dean asked open endedly, but the ex-angel didn't answer as they watched him wander out to where Baby was hunched over, hug him from the side for a little while before plopping down next to him. Sam and Dean had no idea what they were talking about, the sound didn't carry that far. They watched as Baby slung his arm over Cas and roughed his shoulders a little bit, and as Cas stood up and extended a hand for Baby to stand up too.

Cas had come up and silently hugged Baby from the side, sitting down and speaking up. "I know what it's like to be stuck as something you don't want to be. I understand."

Baby had simply nodded and sucked some more on his cigarette. "I know you understand, Cas."

The two sat together in silence for close to a minute. Baby was used to never talking, and Cas didn't mind silence either.

"What if I'm like this forever, Feathers?" Baby said gruffly, tapping the ashes off the tip of his cigarette.

Cas frowned, bringing his knees up to hug as well. "You are much closer to being brought back to normal than I am right now."

Baby looked out to the twisted and dry desert wildbrush and shrugged. "Maybe you're right." Baby coughed and sneezed again. "Maybe this stupid cold is getting to my head."

"If it means anything to you, I am very grateful for you turning into a human. I wouldn't have Dean without you." Cas said quietly.

Baby finally grinned and slung his arm over Cas's shoulders, roughing them as he pushed and pulled them slightly. "Somebody had to do something for you two knuckleheads. And you wanna know how I really knew to get you two together?"

Cas cocked his head slightly to the side. "How?"

"I first met you a long time ago, Castiel. Not long after John bought me and brought me home." He admitted with a small, knowing smile, taking another crackly drag from his cigarette.

"That's not-" Cas began, only to be interrupted.

"You're an angel, you dingus. I thought those fancy-schmnancy tattoos were supposed to remind you that," Baby laughed light-heartedly. "Little thing called time travel. I thought you'd know of it."

"But why?" Cas asked, thoroughly confused. "Was it-"

"To meet the 'rents." Baby had a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips. " 'N ask for permission."

"I asked Mr. and Mrs. Winchester to be permitted to-" Cas struggled.

"Oh, you're thick. _Married_ , Angelface." Baby fully laughed this time, and it didn't help looking at Cas's stupified expression.

"I-Me... _ask_.."

"Well, I'm sure it's a ways from now. I think I remembered that there might have been a couple grey stragglers there in your temples. But knowing you two, damn, no wonder it would have taken a while." Baby grinned and closed his eyes.

"Did they...in regards to my-my question-" Cas bowed his head and twisted his hands nervously in his lap.

"They were very surprised at first, as you'd imagine. But you managed to do a few little card tricks to convince them of your little angelic status, and well, the rest is history. Well, soon-to-be history. Ha! You had to erase their memories afterwards, of course, but you still had their permission. That's pretty important, Cas."

Cas looked at him with very large, very hopeful eyes. "Dean, Me, _Married_." He seemed to glow a little bit at that and sighed slightly. "I get to have a husband, then. Wow."

He seemed to melt and covered his eyes on a very quickly reddenning face.

"Hoo, boy. I feel like Hagrid. Really shouldn't have told you that, now should I? Great. Now you're so lovedrunk I can smell it." Baby teased.

"No, most human pheromones aren't detectable, at least on a concious level." Cas replied, still looking a bit flustered from the news.

"Don't ever change, kiddo." Baby grinned and mashed out his cigarette. "You're perfect for my Dean. Just bein' honest, you might be the only person Dean's dated that I approve of." He chuckled at that and slugged him on the shoulder. "You have my grandbrother seal of approval. Thank you, Cas. For coming and talking to me."

Cas very desprately tried to not get flustered again. "Would you come back to the car? The very "lame" car?" Cas asked, his face still a little flushed, extending a hand for Baby to help him stand up.

"Yeah, that's right. You tell it." Baby chuckled and let Cas help him up. The two walked back together and Baby climbed back into the car.

Baby coughed into his fist and asked for a tissue. He then decided he wanted to take a nap so he and Cas both sat in the back, and it wasn't long before they were both snoring away, Baby was leaning on Cas's shoulder and breathing stuffily as Cas's head was leaned on the window, bumping every so often with the rough road.

Dean's lips twitched upward as his green eyes slid to check up on them in the rear view. Baby's cheeks were a blooming pink as he nuzzled into Cas's shoulder, his hair sticking up in messy tufts.

"Hey. You ain't about to make moves on my man, Baby." Dean chuckled light-heartedly. The air was just beginning to get arid and warm as they drove over miles of mostly rolling brown desert-brush hills, and most of the windows were rolled down. Music floated into the car as the desert wind tickled their hair.

"Shut up, Dean." Baby groaned in exhaustion. "I set you two up, so I deserve to use Cas as my personal pillow."

"Cas is for my pillow-usage only." Dean laughed.

" _Hey. Cas_." Baby somehow did a perfect imitation of Dean's husky voice. " _It's your chisled manly-man human boyfriend Dean."_

Sam snorted loudly.

"...Dean?" Cas asked groggily, and Baby and Sam began snickering hard, whapping each other on the arms.

" _Yes, my sweet gorgeous angel lover_." Baby replied, maybe overdoing it a little on the huskiness. He giggled into his hand. ("Oh, Lord." Dean rolled his eyes.) " _Can I use you as my most heavenly pillow? "_

"Dean..whawasthat?" Cas mumbled, yawning and letting out a small snore. Sam's face was red as he clamped his hand over his mouth and Baby kept slugging him, laughing hard.

"Great. I'm in a car with two three-year-olds." Dean rolled his eyes. "And I do not sound like that." He grunted, in a voice that really did sound like what Baby had done earlier.

Sam and Baby roared.

"Shuddup!" Dean blushed pink. "I hate this family."

A few hours later, Baby finally woke up from his nap and looked around, rubbing his eyes. "Dean? This isn't the fastest road to Southern Cali, and I know my roads. Where are we going?" 

Dean smiled, just the side of his mouth tugging upward. "You'll see."

Around fifteen minutes later, out of the complete silence, Baby let out a loud "Ohhh!" 

He smirked at Dean. "Oh, Dean. You old softie." He folded his arms and sank back into the seat.

Sam knit his eyebrows together, completely not understanding until he saw the road sign for the Grand Canyon. 

The four of them picked a spot where there were the least amont of tourists, and they all plopped down on the dirt as their eyes traced the orange stripes and swirls of rock all below them. 

Baby slung his arm around Sam and Dean, he smelled like leather and engine oil. And next to Dean, Cas leaned onto his human and smiled as Dean softly and absent-mindedly played with his hair and rubbed his back. 

They watched for hours, and they just didn't realize that the whole time none of them had spoken a word. Dean came to the realization that Baby was there all those times he and Sam had just stared at the stars, and he felt just a little ache at the thought of him not being human anymore, with all his little antics from hosing himself off in the driveway to teasing the hell out of him about his boyfriend. Still, he did give some of the best advice. But of course wasn't going to admit he was going to miss the bastard, even though he really, really would. 

...

The four of them finally pulled in to another motel and killed the engine, they all stumbled out with stiff legs, snuggling down in the crappy beds and trying to be as patient as possible with the people they'd been in way too close quarters with for way too long.

"Oh, my god! Shut  _up_ , Dean! I can hear you through this  _pillow_!" Sam groaned. "We're in the same fucking room!"

"All I'm doing is saying goodnight, don't get your damn panties in a wad!" Dean shot back in the dark. "G'night, Cas."

Sam once again heard the loud smacking sound of a kiss and pressed the pillow tighter over his ears.

"Ca-hahaha-as!" Dean chuckled happily, surprised as the man kept kissing him again and again with small, happy sounding smooches. "Everyone can hear us!" The noises continued.

" _Dean_!" Sam insisted angrily.

"Fine!" Dean shot back, and there was one more, final-sounding smack before it finally went quiet. Sam let out a tiny sigh of relief, he was tired as hell and ready to sleep like a log. 

Then there was the loud rustling of the sheets and squeaking of the bed next to him as the two moved around to get into a more comfortable position.

Sam groaned loudly.

"Cas- I don't want to be the little spoon again!" Dean complained quietly under his breath, but unfortunately not quiet enough for Sam to avoid hearing.

"Oh. My.  _God_. Shut the  _fuck_  up!"

"Teenagers," Baby mumbled under his breath, he was smiling brightly in the dark as he slept, as usual, on the floor.


	18. Chapter 18

Sam woke up slowly, letting out a tiny groan as he stretched his back on the motel bed and swung his long legs off the side. He realized what had waken him, the squeaky sound of the cheap shower running, and Baby humming a little to himself.

Sam pulled on a clean shirt and was pulling on his jeans just as Baby climbed out of the bathroom, steam billowing into the motel room as he held a towel around his hips, using another one to rub his dark hair dry.

"Morning," Sam nodded at him, and Baby nodded back and covered his mouth for a yawn.

"I think I'm feeling a little better. I didn't have to sleep in today." Baby graveled, rubbing off his face with the towel. "How far a drive today?"

Sam shrugged. "I'm guessing about three hours. I did some more looking into the coordinates- they seem to be on campus of one of the US's most infamous party schools, the University of California, Santa Barbara, aka UCSB. When I narrowed it down and looked at the school map, it seemed to be at the Alpha Tau Omega Frat. Why it would be there, I can only guess..."

"Maybe he's there to party, then." Baby shrugged. "He seems to like to pick on college kids too."

Baby looked over to Dean and Cas. Most of their bodies were obscured with the blankets, but Sam could see the distinctive lumps as Cas held Dean tight to his chest, his arm visible and thrown over Dean's shoulder as his nose was just barely pressed to the back of Dean's neck. Dean breathed in deeply and smacked his lips before moving his heavy arm and plopping it on top of Cas's.

"Are you gonna wake these two lovebirds up or should I?" Baby nodded to the sleeping couple and Sam snorted out a laugh. "Go right ahead, cupid."

Baby turned away and dropped his towel, pulled on his boxers and stretched, wiggling his back with his hands over his head. "They don't.. _actually_  bother you, right? I get how it would be weird because you three have been friends for so long." Baby pulled on his original black tank once again.

Sam chuckled. "No. I can't say I didn't see it coming. C'mon, I'm a little brother. It's in my blood to tease my older brother." He shrugged with a smile.

"Good." Baby smiled, turning around once again. " 'Cuz you've got to admit- they look pretty damn cute right now."

Sam covered his face. "Ew, no! This is my brother you're talking about! No he's not  _cute right now!"_

Baby laughed again.

"You're just reveling in the fact you got them together." Sam shot out, cracking a smile.

Baby shrugged. "Wouldn't doubt it. What? An artist can't be proud of his work?" He then reached out and gently rolled Dean's shoulder. "Wake up, sleepyhead. Time to hit the road."

Dean groaned irritably. "I'm  _tired_."

"I don't care. Get your lazy ass up." Baby rolled his shoulder again. "C'mon, Dean. We're so close to getting the old me back."

Cas was the one who spoke up this time. "Dean. Stop moving around so much."

"Stuff's packed and in the car. All you gotta do is get up and change." Baby nudged them again before the finally began to groggily untangle from each other and roll off the sides of the bed.

Dean insisted they go to a Krispy Kreme so he could compare to Dunkin' Donuts and also he said they needed coffee like 'yesterday'. They parked the car and they all climbed out, Cas snatching up Dean's hand right away as Sam trailed behind them.

"Can you give me a kiss to wake me up?" Cas asked, his voice weary and heavy with sleep as he squinted at Dean.

"How would that wake you up?" Dean chuckled, turning to face him with a small smile on his lips.

"Because you always make my heart pound in my chest." Cas answered innocently, and Dean laughed, then leaned in and gave him a tiny peck.

He then caught Sam's eye and his green gaze was sharp. "You ever speak about this again I'll cleave out your entrails and enter the national jump rope competition with them." He growled.

Well, that escalated quickly. Of course wasn't ever going to go complete sap. 

Sam threw up his palms and shrugged. "Hey. My lips are sealed."

Sam and Baby both ordered black coffee as Dean bought a few donuts, a black coffee for himself and a latte for Cas. They took the food to go and soon were on the road again, still in a sleepy daze as they sipped their hot drinks and occasionally munched on a donut.

Finally, after close to three hours, they got to the location of the coordinates. They glided up to the frat house, ATO, and it looked like a proverbial party bomb had gone off. The place had been teepeed, apparently more than once, the thin white strands fluttering in the breeze as they were draped over the balconies and stuck lumpily on hedges and swaying from tree branches.

There were people, positioned like thrown away rag dolls, some face-down, all clutching red solo cups as well as random crap strewn about the lawn. There was a cracked toilet seat lid, an airhorn, a beer hat, a pink lawn flamingo, a taxidermied moose head and a mattress to name just a few things.

"Are you sure this is the place?" Baby asked, sheilding his eyes in the bright morning sun and squinting.

Cas pushed past, walking up to the house. "I can sense my brother's presence here. He is inside." The three of them trailed after the ex-angel, stepping over strange objects and sometimes even people on their way to the door.

Once they opened the door, they were hit with the bumping bass of loud deephouse music. The people they saw dancing looked absolutely partied out, but they were still going. Some of them were crying and they threw their arms up and danced around. Someone clutched on to Sam's shirt tightly. "Help. Us." He gritted out, only to be interrupted by a seemingly involuntary "AYYYYYY! WHO WANTS MOOORREE BEEEEERRRS UP IN HERE?"

Sam looked greatly disturbed as the man scurried away. "What the hell?"

"Forced college partying?" Dean spoke aloud. "Gabriel's probably in disguise. We'll find him if he wants to play- he'll be the most enthusiastic one here." They scoured the house, coming across many partied out students who begged for help before they kept partying, when they finally found Gabriel.

"Chug! Chug!" The frat boys around the- lo and behold, very  _not_  disguised Gabriel? The angel drank more amber liquid as it sped down the plastic tubing, ahh'd and wiped his mouth.

He met their gazes right away. "Oh. So, I see you finally decided to show up. You had these poor kids partying for six days straight as I waited for your sorry asses to get down here." 

Dean frowned. "Gabe. Let 'em go."

Gabriel shrugged and straightened the collar of his pineapple hawaiian shirt. "Meh. I guess they've learned their lesson. Just trying to make the world a better place and have a little fun while I'm at it. 100% success rate for creating studious kids now, just you see." Gabriel stood up, and leaned back into a throne made out of beer cans. "I always felt like I had the college boy spirit. Maybe that's why I like to mess with them so much."

He leaned back lazily and snapped, and the kids sprinted from the house, saying things like they never ever wanted to see another red solo cup in their lives.

Sam looked angry as hell. "What the hell, Gabriel? All the angels fell from heaven and you're using your powers to  _torture college students_?"

Gabriel shrugged. "I told you. That was just something to do in the meantime as I waited for you all to haul your assess down here."

Dean narrowed his eyes. "What's the catch here? Do we have to track you all over the country or some shit now? Because I want my car back. And I want him back to normal  _today_."

Gabriel rolled his shoulders and shrugged. "Well. Fortunately, you caught me at the right time. I've been partying for six days straight so I'm too worn out to make you go through more hoops. Just seeing how you reacted to a car-turned-human was enough for me."

Baby scowled and took a step forward, Dean gripped his shoulder and made sure he wasn't going to hash it out with Gabriel.

"And Dean-" Gabriel nodded at Dean and Cas, Cas holding Dean's wrist gently, "It would be in your best interests to let go of my brother for now."

Dean instead slipped his hand into Cas's so he wasn't just holding his wrist. "Oh, haha. No way. I'm not doing anything you say, Gabriel."

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Fine," He said irritably, snapping his fingers.

Dean's fingers shot together and the nails bit into his palm as the hand he was holding vanished. His eyes flew open in shock.

"Cas!" Dean cried out in disbelief. He narrowed his eyes at Gabriel. "Where did you send him, you son of a bitch?"

Sam also looked pissed. "This was a trap! You brought us here just so you could steal Cas!"

Gabriel nonchalantly waved the accusation away. "Trust me. This is for the best. He's in heaven, with a little something Metatron-" ('fucking Metatron' he said bitterly under his breath) calls "Castiel's Labyrinth."

Sam looked a little shocked. "Labyrinth- like the  _Cretan_  Labyrinth?"

Gabriel smirked a little. "Exactly. I can always count on you to be a little nerd, now, can't I Sammy?" He raised his eyebrow. 

Dean frowned. "What the hell's the Cretan Labyrinth?"

Gabriel looked angry, but not at Dean. He seemed to be more angry at Metatron. "You all know how my brother obsesses over books and stories. Well, mythology seems to be his favorites. He's gone crazy about it to put it nicely."

"You see, he believes Castiel to be like Icarus." Gabriel rolled his eyes at this. "Except he is telling the story backwards. Old nutter read so many books he began to read them again, but backwards. He says some stories are better that way, the old bat. Icarus flying too close to the sun, even though he'd been warned to stay away...he saw that as Castiel falling for humanity. Or one human, in particular. You, Dean."

Gabriel used a hand motion of rolling his wrist to get the story going again. "Then, Cas was punished, just like Icarus and his father were jailed. So now, he goes to the Labyrinth. At the very end of the maze is were he can find his grace again. And that is the first step in restoring heaven again. So no, I can't lay a finger on Metatron until the steps are completed."

"Let me go with him, then!" Dean growled. Gabriel shook a finger at Dean.

"Ah, ah ah. He must go alone."

Baby tried to surge forward again and Dean had to restrain him.

"Why did you let him go  _now_? He was unprepared, you didn't even explain to him!" Baby snarled at Gabriel. "What happens if he gets hurt?"

"Oh, Baby dear, Metatron only wants a good story. He's lost sight of everything else. He won't kill him. Maybe only rough him up a bit." Gabriel explained with a yawn.

Sam's hands balled into fists. "Why did you turn Baby human anyway? You only tried to get us here just so you could take Cas, didn't you?"

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "If I wanted to I could have brought Cas to the labyinth long ago. But he was hopeless after the fall. Absolutely devastated with a spirit that was smashed to pieces. Honestly, he'd probably just lay down and let himself be mauled by the Minotaur if I'd made him go then. But now, you see,  _now_  he has inspiration to get to the end. To get back to you, Dean."

"Why did you do it? Why did you fuck with my car like that?" Dean growled. 

Gabriel gave a little pout, tilted his head and snapped his fingers.

Baby gasped next to him and his knees buckled out from under him. "Baby!" Dean shot out to grab him, luckily he was able to catch him before he hit the floor. Suddenly, he was extremely light. Wait..was he even a he?

"Fuck," The word was still Baby's, but breathed through different lips. This Baby was small, slender, perfect womanly curves, with beautiful shining brown skin and long, flowing black hair. She opened her eyes; matching green-gold to Gabriel's. That must have been the 'building block' this time. She was gorgeous. She reminded Dean somewhat of Cassie, but even more beautiful.

"Dean..." Baby wheezed. "What did he do to me?"

"Is this was you wanted, Deanie boy? Is this how you  _thought_  your car had to look?" Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Please. I could have made him look like anything I wanted. See?" He snapped again, and Baby doubled over, his-no, it was a her, just a different her this time, palms planted on the floor.

This Baby just looked like a feminine version of the male; pale skin, tallish with long legs, her black hair in a messy bun.

"Son of a bitch," Baby swore, spitting out blood as her arms shook as she tried to hold herself up.

"No-" Sam tried to speak up, as the archangel snapped again.

The male Baby dropped back into place, Dean had to adjust to carry the extra weight as Baby wheezed to breathe. "Fucking  _dammit_  that hurts!" He hissed through gritted teeth, doubling over on himself.

"Stop!" Sam spoke up as he couldn't stand to see Baby go through another 'sudden transformation' as Gabriel held his fingers poised for another snap. "I think I get it now."

Gabriel finally lowered his hand. He cocked an eyebrow, smirking. "Pray tell, Sammy."

"Well, our expectations. They were for Baby to be a girl. And then, when he was something entirely different...it was  _better_  that way. I think what you mean is with all the angels falling from Heaven... we never expected something like that. But maybe it's  _better_  this way, even though it threw us for a loop. Why? Because they can interact with the humans now, rely on them for compassion and sympathy after falling to Earth with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Heaven won't be calling us 'mudmonkeys' and 'hairless apes' after this. The unexpected is what can mend heaven with Earth again. The disaster.. is the.. _solution_." Sam spoke up, looking down at his hands as he indicated, then lifted his face, his eyes shining with understanding.

Gabriel clapped just twice. "Wow. Beautiful, Sam. A poetic masterpiece. Thank you for sharing." There was that stupid shit-eating grin again.

Sam's expression dropped. "Wait- so that wasn't...?" Sam asked in disbelief, slightly irked.

Gabriel shrugged, grinning widely. "Meh. You and that brainy-brain, Sam. Too funny."

Sam and Dean looked beyond annoyed. Dean helped to steady Baby as he rocked woosily again. "If there's no point, turn him the fuck back already! Can't you see he's miserable as a human?!" Dean demanded. 

Gabriel smirked and shrugged again, conjuring up a lollipop and easily popping it in his mouth. "You two knuckleheads want to know the real reason?" He talked around the lolly before popping it out once again.

"I was bored after hiding for a few years. I was in an alternate dimension, TVland, you know, had a few debuts. Pepsi Max commercials, I mean, I got a free hat, some war action show..Band of Brothers...oh, I did aliens in Independence Day! Man, I love aliens. If you couldn't tell from when I got that asshole to dance with one of 'em." He listed boredly, sucking on his lolly again.

"How are you even still an angel?" Sam insisted. "And why not, I don't know, focus your energies on  _stopping Metatron_ instead?"

"My dickhead brother's spell didn't work on archangels." Gabriel shrugged. "And I just wanted to play a little prank on you guys to show you that I'm back in business. And ask for your help."

Dean looked mad as hell. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

Gabriel looked bored as he observed his lolly, twirling it. "What? Why wouldn't you agree to help me now? I paved the way for nice things. Apparently, Dean's gone and got himself boyfriend. And you both have a home and a dog."

"The real reason is, I sent you Baby because I knew he'd sweeten your lives up. He cares way too much about the both of you. Hey, quality of life has improved since he's been with you, is that not true? So why wouldn't you help me?" Gabriel smirked. "I killed two birds with one Impala-shaped stone, don't you see? One, get Cas to have enough determination to defeat Metatron. Two, get you bros on my side." 

"Well, aren't you at least going to turn Baby back to normal?" Sam demanded.

Gabriel casually waved the demand away as if it were a transient comment. "Ah. Depends. Do you agree?"

Dean narrowed his eyes. "Agree to  _what_?!"

Gabriel looked annoyed as he crossed his arms. "To  _helping_  me, obviously."

Sam was the one who looked angry now. He held Baby up by his upper arm, the man's nose was bleeding, a red line down his face, and let out a few shaky breaths. "You're holding Baby's old form hostage?" Sam growled.

Gabriel shrugged. "What can I say? I'm an angel, not a goddamn Saint. I like to play dirty. With the long cons  _and_  in the bedroom." He smirked and winked at Sam, who proceeded to rub his eyes with his fists like he he wanted to bleach his brains.

"How the hell can we help  _you_?" Dean demanded. "We're just humans."

Gabriel shook his head. "No, no. Not just humans. You're both important, the main character's in Metatron's story, so to speak. He is the Scribe of God, he's is obsessed with all those stupid books. He thinks of people as characters now. And you're the main-est characters I've ever seen."

Gabriel ticked off on his fingers. "Game plan, if you agree. First of all, we get my baby bro's grace back. Huh? How about that, Dean and Sammy? You can get all the healing, all the little angel zapping, demon smiting..." He then turned to Dean, his hazel eyes twinkling mischievously. "Things'd be different when baby bro's fully charged. He talked to you about grace-union, didn't he?"

Dean locked his jaw and gulped.

"I'll take that as a yes!" Gabriel said excitedly, clapping his hands together. "Think of the  _sex_ , Dean."

He waggled his eyebrows. " _Soul_  sex. And before you ask, yes, I've had it. It's  _life_  changing."

Dean looked visibly conflicted.

Sam rolled his eyes. "Dean, are you even serious right now?"

"Sammy! I can't say no to  _soul sex_!" He hissed to Sam through gritted teeth.

"Look. Number Two, I'm one of the only angels left. Besides my little old brothers Lucy and Mike who are still in the cage. I gotta get my family back." Gabriel said sadly. "I'm talking about massive stuff here. I need your help with heaven's angels, guys,  _all_  of them!"

They did need to help heaven. Maybe if they agreed to help Gabriel, he would know where to even start, he seemed to know which steps to take . And sure, they loved their normal life, but they needed to help heaven, even after everything it put them through.

"I want you to turn Baby back to his old self first." Sam spoke up. "No tricks."

Gabriel smiled a little. "No tricks." He poised his fingers to snap, and Baby threw up his hand.

" _Wait_!" Baby yelped. "Not  _inside_! They ain't taking me in pieces to get me out of this damn room!"

"Fine." Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Too bad you're not as much of a knucklehead as your brothers here."

Gabriel extended his hand. "Now. No bailing on me. You help me restore the angels in heaven, I bring Baby back to normal and Cas gets powered up again. Deal?"

The two brothers exchanged a glance.

"Deal." The both said, nodding a little. They both shook hands with Gabriel in succession, and then they went outside.

"I can't believe you're leaving." Dean said sadly, and Baby slung his arm over Dean's shoulder.

"I'm not  _leaving_ , Dean. I'll still be here. You and Sam just get to ride me again." Baby laughed.

"You say stuff like that on purpose, don't you?" Dean laughed. He knew he was really going to miss him. 

"Oh, but of course." Baby admitted. 


	19. Chapter 19

Baby stood in an empty parking spot, his hands deep in his black denim pockets, wearing his black leather jacket as his hair lifted a little in the wind, squinting in the sunlight. Baby sheilded his eyes and looked up to the sun.

"Guess this is it, huh?" Baby said sadly. "Oomf!"

Sam had surged forward and was already squeezing him into a tight hug. "I'm gonna miss you."

"I'm gonna miss you too, you big girl," Baby smiled and hugged back, his head buried in Sam's shoulder. "Don't get into trouble without me."

Baby moved on and hugged Dean.

"Thank you." Dean said quietly into his ear as he clamped him into a hug. "For everything."

Baby laughed. "Remember what I said. What's rule number two?"

Dean rolled his eyes. " 'No sex in the backseat.' "

"Good." Baby laughed. "But I revoke rule number one. Cas can drive me if he wants, when he gets back home." The smile on Baby's face was sweet, and familial. It made Dean feel better. 

Dean smiled a little. "Thanks, Baby."

Baby then pointed his finger, lifting his eyebrows. "Now, Dean.  _Airbags_."

Dean looked confused. "Hm?"

"Airbags. Put 'em in as soon as possible. I am  _not_  getting T-boned again and having Sam communicate with you via ouija. No way." Baby jabbed at his chest, his thick eyebrows raised high.

Dean nodded at him. "Airbags."

"Good. Don't forget."

Dean clamped Baby into another hug. "Goodbye, Baby."

The brothers stepped away, Baby stood smack dab in the middle of the asphalt parking spot, and shoved his hands deep in his pockets. He looked extremely happy that he'd get to finally get back to normal.

He smiled brightly, winking at the Winchesters.

Gabriel snapped, and they both sheilded their eyes as there was a burst of bright light.

Then, there was their long-lost car filling the space, glossy and black and badass as always.

Dean came forward and patted the hood. The black, glossy metal was cleaner than ever. "Good to have you back. Damn, you're clean! I guess all the showers payed off. " Dean exclaimed happily. 

Sam laughed. "Okay, I guess we should stop talking to him unless we want to seem crazy."

Gabriel crossed his arms. "Ehem."

The two looked back at him, Dean still keeping his hand lightly touching the hood.

"So. I'll call for you once I need you again. But it's probably once Cas gets his grace back." Gabriel spoke up, his hazel eyes sparkling as he looked to Dean.

"Have fun with that grace-union, Dean." Gabriel waggled his eyebrows.

Dean flushed bright red as he dug the keys to the Impala from his pocket. "O-okay. Bye, Gabriel." He mumbled flusteredly, digging the keys into the lock and unlocking the driver's side door.

"And Sammy. Just make sure you knock this time." Gabriel winked and Sam flushed red as well. "And if you ever get curious about angel stuff Dean and my li'l bro are up to- well, you know who to hit up."

"Um...um..bye Gabe." Sam turned away and also wrenched open the passenger's side door, his face burning red. The archangel smirked and disappeared in a flapping of feathers.

Dean turned the ignition and the car rumbled to life. Him and his brother were silent as they just sat there for a little.

"This is weird." Sam spoke up after a few seconds. 

"Yup." Dean agreed. He hooked his arm around the bench seat and looked at his brother with a raised eyebrow. "Since when has Gabe been  _flirty_  with you?"

Sam blushed bright red. He sputtered. "Th-That's not what I was talking about!! I'm talking about  _Baby_."

Dean shrugged. "This isn't  _weird_. Just listen to that rumble, Sammy. He's happier than a clam." He turned up the music and the car glided out of the parking spot. "Damn, I missed driving this car." Dean patted the dashboard. "Ey! Gabe even hooked us up with a full tank!"

Sam looked to Dean skeptically. "You don't find it weird that we're literally inside him right now?"

Dean rolled his eyes and adjusted the mirror. "Sam, he was never meant to be a human. This is his real body. And I'm sure he's a billion times happier like this. Plus, I owe him. For me 'n Cas." He coughed the last bit rather gruffly.

"Sorry that Gabe took him away like that, Dean." Sam said gently. "He'll be back. He'll be okay."

Dean looked out at the road, Sam couldn't quite make out his expression. "I know he will." Dean said quietly, roughly.

"You love him, don't you?" Sam asked, looking out the window.

Dean rubbed his nose a little. "Yeah," He spoke up. "I hate sounding like a sap, but..I've never felt like..this with anyone else."

Suddenly, the radio switched all by itself. And the volume seemed to have doubled.

- _OH, I WANNA KNOOOWW WHAT LOOVVEE ISSS_ -

Dean twisted the dial down immediately. "Dude. Don't be an asshole." But he was laughing. And Sam decided right then that it wasn't so weird anymore.

* * *

Cas stumbled to his feet. Last thing he knew, he'd been in a totally trashed frat house in Southern California, holding Dean's hand, and now he was flat on his back in a strange kind of white hallway, that seemed to hook left. But there was no ceiling, no blemishes on the stark white walls.

Except for an arrow on the floor that led him inside.

Cas clutched at his chest- with whatever angelic senses he had left, which was barely anything, he could sense his grace was here. Far away, but here nonetheless.

He heard scrabbling on the wall to his right, there were loud, heavy footsteps somewhere far away but he could still feel the rumbling vibrations.

"I'm going to get it, Dean." Cas said through gritted teeth. "I'm going to be an angel again."

His grace was the only way out of here now. And there was no way he was going to die within these tall white walls without seeing the Winchesters again. He grimaced, gripped the gun he kept in a holster on his belt, took a sharp breath in, and began.

Maybe Gabriel had been right. In sending the brothers a human Baby, he'd help Dean along with his relationship with Cas, and now Cas didn't have a crushed spirit anymore. That grace meant escape, and that meant getting back to the man he loved.

And after he came back, he made a deal with the Winchester brothers to have them aid him in piecing heaven back together again.

Gabriel could be a dick. But it  _was_  well-played.

* * *

It was pitch black when Sam and Dean finally rolled back up to the bunker after a long day of driving. They parked, stumbled out and unlocked the front door. They heard the television playing, muffled and soft in the distance.

"Kev?" Dean called out, clunking the keys down onto the counter. "You still up?"

They both found him in the living room, the lights all off as he sat in the blue glow of the television, Grace curled up and sleeping in his lap as he pet her head softly, his legs covered with sweatpants with his ankles crossed and his bare feet resting on the coffee table. He lifted his head as he heard them come in.

Kevin smiled a little, stroking the German Shepard's head again as her big brown eyes flicked up to the two of them and her ears perked up.

"Where's my money, bitch?" Kevin grinned.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is everybody! The last chapter! (╥﹏╥)
> 
> This has been such a fun ride! (nudge nudge car puns) (no?) (sorry)
> 
> But thank you for reading, commenting, bookmarking, etc! :)

 

"Ninety-six, seven, eight, nine, one hundred." Dean grumbled as he placed the last of the wad of cash into Kevin's open palm.

"Thanks." Kevin beamed at him. "I think I might go down to the store and buy a pie and eat it all myself."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Don't be such an li'l shit about it." He grunted and leaned down, gently stratching the dog's ears.

"Have you heard anything about how Cas is doing?" Kevin asked, tucking the hundred dollars back into his pocket and his button-black eyes shone at Dean with sympathy.

Dean locked his jaw and shook his head. "He'll follow through. I know he can do it. He's a tough little guy."

Kevin smiled. "Sure is. Well, I'm heading down to the store now. I don't think I've held a hundred dollars in my pocket since the broke college years started. Maybe I'll get a clean pair of sweats."

Dean finally laughed. "Please do. If I see those ratty old grey ones one more time I will rip them off and throw them away."

Dean wasn't quite sure how he felt about having a semi-sentient car. More often than not nothing would happen, but sometimes it was clear that Baby was in there. He'd sometimes change the radio to an even better song that he knew Dean would love. If Dean was driving on low sleep and drifting asleep behind the wheel, Baby would honk at him. Sam thought this was hysterical. He'd even avoided a few car accidents.

Once, when Dean was driving home alone, it had been almost two months since he'd seen Cas. Dean missed him so much it ached.

Baby was in a bad mood- the engine was not accelerating as fast as it should have, he was being sluggish and even though Dean was flooring the pedal the speedometer never went over twenty five miles per hour.

_Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend, somewhere along in the bitterness..._

The Fray swelled loudly in his speakers. Dean realized that Baby missed Cas too.

"He'll be home soon. I know he will." Dean rubbed the dashboard. It kind of made him feel a little bit better about the situation, even if he looked crazy talking to his car. "I miss him too."

The radio cut off mid-song and no matter how many times Dean pressed the radio on again it remained off.

The car crawled back to the bunker at around ten miles per hour and stopped itself in his usual parking spot and shuddered off without Dean even putting it in park. Poor Baby.

Dean pulled out the keys and locked the car, Baby's somber mood had rubbed off on him as he clunked up the steps and opened the door to the bunker. His mood lifted a little bit when he smelled what was cooking for dinner, Sam was making some kind of soup and the smell had Dean sighing.

He trudged his way to his room, ready to change into comfier clothes for the evening.

Then, something he'd been waiting for for two months happened.

Dean heard the whooshing of feathers. A sound he hadn't heard in a  _long_  time.

Cas was standing there with his arms slightly in a shrug, as if to say 'I guess it worked' as Dean looked to him with wide eyes. Dean rushed over and pulled him into a hug, holding him tight.

"I got my grace back, Dean." Cas said with a watery voice as Dean held him tightly.

"I know. I'm so happy." He squeezed him a little more and kissed him on the jaw. "I missed you so much. Are you hurt?"

"No," Cas said. "I was wounded by the time I got to my grace. But with it I was able to heal myself."

"Thank god," Dean breathed, all his worry beginning to dissapate. Then he pulled out of the hug, fisting Cas's lapels as he kissed him square and hard on the mouth. Then, the kiss was interrupted as Dean gasped in surprise and jerked away.

The confusion was clear on his face. He'd felt something..weird. Like a squirm in his chest, a hot, writhing sensation. "Cas-aAh!"

His eyes rolled back a little and his knees buckled as he felt it again, but this time it hadn't just been in his flesh and bone but reached beyond that, the substance felt hot as he felt it snake past his flesh and press to his soul gently, leaving a little spot of warmth where it had kissed, asking for permission. Dean's soul shivered in recognition and his eyes fluttered closed, Cas had to hold up much of his weight.

His soul was doing something strange. Dean imagined it was turning itself inside out, the calloused parts on the outside folding in and exposing the soft light that was contained within. The soul was warming even now, aching for another touch, opening up and wanting something else to enter it. It was getting hotter and hotter and  _churning_  slowly.

"Oh my god," Dean breathed, his eyes still closed as he leaned on Cas. He felt a little dizzy as he felt his insides- not his fleshy insides like his guts, but his soul- moving around inside, rotating, folding, turning inside out and exposing, aching for another touch.. " _Oh_..." He finally understood what was happening now. "Jesus, Cas, eager much?" Dean laughed and had to lean on him to steady himself. That day in the bathroom...Christ, he'd almost forgotten. He could barely wrap his head around that this was happening, _now_. 

Cas frowned and ran a hand through Dean's hair. "I...Dean, I'm sorry. We don't have to do this if it frightens you."

Dean firmly shook his head, finally straightening up and opening his eyes, he still felt the tiny place were Cas's grace kissed his soul burning hot, a pulsating spot in his chest. "No, Jesus, Cas-I do. I swear I do. I- just wait until we can lie down, man." He chuckled, fisting at his coat. 

Cas smiled a little, embarrassed. "Right. Sorry."

Dean had both hands cupped behind Cas's neck as they kissed. Cas had his arms wrapped around Dean's shoulders and Dean grabbed for handfuls of his ass as Cas did a small hop and locked his ankles around Dean's lower back. Dean carried the two of them into the bedroom, kicking the door closed, and he was the one who fell onto his back when they finally got into his room. The bed dipped with both his and Cas's weight, and Dean's hand curled over Cas's neck as he pulled him onto him.

Dean gripped his fingers on the bottom of Cas's shirt and they both pulled it off, tossing it aside. Cas crouched over Dean, kissing him hard and fast as Dean pulled him closer by the back of the head. Dean tugged off his own shirt and Cas rolled his hips, their bare torsos sliding together. Dean felt his soul flare up, begging for attention. It was so much more intense than any need of the flesh he'd ever felt.

"Do it," Dean pulled away and whispered into Cas's lips. "You've waited long enough for this, dammit, do it." His soul was urging for another touch, throbbing even.

Cas took the sides of Dean's head in his palms and pressed his forehead to Dean's. "I will try to be careful." Cas breathed, and then-

Dean gasped hard, his back arched a little as he felt that first push. It was incredibly hot, like molten lava, as Cas gently pushed into his own soul.

And Dean  _felt_  him, that light emoted pure Cas in not a way that he could see or smell or even touch necessarily but he could just  _sense_  that this was pure Castiel in his soul.

"-Fuck," Dean panted as Cas receded quickly, whipping himself back out, a concerned expression on the angel's face.

"As a human being I understand how this could be overwhelming...Dean, I'm sorry." Cas played with a bit of hair on the side of his head, sliding his palm down and cupping his cheek. "We don't have to do this."

Dean's soul, aflame from were Cas had occupied, began to shiver in the angel's absence and needed that grace back, the half Cas had touched was throbbing and needing him to enter again, shivering like wet skin getting out of warm water into the cold windy air. It  _needed_  Cas again, it didn't want to leave Dean half touched like this.

"Please," Dean whimpered. "Cas, I'm so cold. Hurry."

Cas gripped tightly to Dean, he lowered his chest to press against Dean's. Cas took in a short breath, coiled up his grace within his chest, and  _pushed_.

Dean couldn't help but cry out and his fingers, which had been soft and gentle on Cas's back, clenched and scraped down the angel's back. He threw his head back, his neck arching as he cried out with gritted teeth, as he felt the grace burning hot in his soul.

The searing heat melted farther and farther it finally filled Dean up all the way, not even the farthest corner was untouched, wrapping around it and melting into it and claiming it as his own, Dean felt like someone had drilled a hole inside his chest and they were now dumping molten lava to fill him up.

Something dawned on Dean. He finally realized that Cas  _wasn't_  the person that was above him and kissing him lustfully, Cas really was nothing but the light that was surrounding and wrapping up his soul right now, that he wasn't a person with a body but a being of Grace. Cas pulled his lips away and pressed in forehead to Dean's once again.

Dean let out a sigh. Everything had stopped burning once Cas had fully expanded his light into every crevice of his soul. Dean expected it to be a meld of some kind, but both souls were constantly in motion. He felt Cas's grace searching his, finding something, curling around one of the most hardened parts of his soul lovingly, as if to soften it.

"...Holy _shit_ ," Dean breathed as Cas found another of his calloused, blackened spots, gently curling around it and smoothing it over with a tendril of grace. Dean's soul shivered and relaxed at the touch.

"Your soul is much less damaged than you believe, Dean." Cas said gently, part of his grace swirling in searching of another spot. "It's the most beautiful soul I've ever seen." Dean exhaled and his neck extended, and Cas didn't hesitate to pepper it with kisses. Their lips pressed together once again.

It  _did_  feel the opposite of lonely. Dean didn't know how to describe it. He knew that he felt weirded out at the  _idea_  of another soul being within his at the same time, but physically it was another story. He felt..full. Whole, complete, he felt he couldn't use any word to describe the pure fullness and sense of belonging.

"Holy shit," Dean repeated as he felt Cas began to recede, the part of the soul he'd touched was still hot, with that kind of glow like skin hot from scalding bathwater.

Dean finally felt the light exit all the way, his grace savoring each touch as it dragged away like a receding wave, and Cas collapsed on top of Dean, breathing hard as he tucked his head into the space on top of Dean's shoulders.

"Damn," Dean brought his hand up and spread his palm in between Cas's shoulderblades on top of his tattooed cross. Cas's ribcage rose and fell and his back was damp with sweat. Dean's soul still felt like it was still glowing and throbbing a little from the aftermath of the intense heat.

"I underestimated how exhausting it would be," Cas panted, breathing hard. Dean slid his palm down his back but closed his eyes, letting himself feel the difference in his soul now that an angel had claimed it. The tatters he'd known were there before felt smoothed out. He felt  _great_ , actually. Like he was somehow newer than before.

"That felt amazing." Dean breathed, moving his hand down Cas's back again and kissing his temple. "I can't even find the words to describe..."

"It wouldn't hurt anymore. With practice." Cas reached up and played with Dean's hair. "I'm sorry if I hurt you at all. I was...a virgin before this." Cas smiled and kissed Dean  on the side of the mouth. "Maybe...maybe if I can be in union with your soul enough times, over time it would barely retain its scars from hell."

"I didn't know that it was going to heal me like that. God, I feel so...whole. It's kinda weird, for me." Dean smiled and combed his fingers through Cas's damp hair. "So, tell me. This is like angel sex, isn't it? So, will I get..like..soul-boners?" He cracked up aloud as he said the phrase aloud.

Cas blushed. "There will be...urges. Or so I've been taught. When we are lonely or are missing each other. Sometimes the soul will long for union again." Cas rested his cheek on Dean's chest. "Don't be afraid. It won't be bad, I promise." He gave him a very short kiss. "I love you."

"I love you too." Dean breathed, trying to steady his breathing as Cas snuggled into him. There was suddenly a strange sound, like a rustling of feathers, and Dean felt a glossy, smooth feather underneath his fingertips.

"Here they are." Dean smiled, running his fingers along the black feathers, and Cas moaned a little. There was a plasticky crackle as the feathers spread more, inviting Dean to run his fingers through and touch them, the less dark, silvery undersides of the feathers spreading into view. "You've been waiting for a long time to show me these, huh?"

Cas shivered with pleasure and pressed closer. "No one has ever- touched them before.." He breathed, the wing spreading even more and inviting Dean to run his fingers along all of it.

"They're beautiful," Dean said in astonishment, reaching down past the silky feathers and finding the short and soft down by his shoulderblades. Cas shuddered again and let out a tiny moan into Dean's neck, planting a kiss on the stubbly skin. His wing lifted and blanketed Dean's body.

Cas seemed to relax, Dean brought his hand up and down, stroking his wing rythmically, his fingers tracing down the glossy feather lines until they were partially swallowed as he combed through the fluffy, downy regions. Cas's soft and warm breath played just as rythmically across Dean's collarbones.

And Dean wondered how the hell a guy like Cas would ever go for a guy like him.

Dean figured Cas had fallen asleep, so he moved his head a little and kissed him on the hairline, stopping his stroking of his wings and closing his own eyes. Then he remembered that Cas wouldn't sleep anymore. Well, he was doing a damn good job at faking it.

"Grace! Come back here!" Sam laughed as the German Shepard shoved her nose into the partially opened door, bounding into the room and leaping up on to the bed.

"Hi, baby girl!" Dean cooed, scrubbing her caramel forehead as her ears flopped back and forth. The dog growled at the jet black wing and Cas pulled his wing from his spread position and folded it onto his back with a loud rustle. Dean gently smoothed Cas's head and combed his fingers through his hair until Cas sighed again and nuzzled back into the crook of Dean's side, letting out a sleepy groan.

Sam stumbled in after the dog, a slobbery squeaky toy in hand, and saw the sleeping angel with wide eyes.

"Oh my g- He came home?" Sam sputtered. "And... _wings_?!"

Dean touched the curve of one of the black wings and the feathers fluffed slightly with a loud puff and then settled back down flat. Cas screwed up his face in his exhaustion and cuddled a little closer to Dean.

"Yep." Dean said. "Apparently they  _can_  be seen."

"Well, I'll take Grace out of your hair." Sam came forward and gave the dog a soft pet on the head before squeaking the toy and motioning for her to jump down from the bed, which she quickly did, running in a circle, coming to a stop and barking when Sam squeaked the toy again.

"I'm making dinner, okay? I'll tell you and Cas when it's ready." Sam laughed as Grace barked again, crouching on to her back legs in anticipation, and not breaking her stare with the toy in Sam's hand.

"Aright, Sammy." Dean yawned. "Just don't burn the bunker down."

"Har, har." Sam shot back, striding out the door with Grace bouncing at his heels.

"Wait." Dean just remembered. "Cas, there's one last thing we have to do."

The two of them stumbled outside, Dean tugging Cas along by the hand, until they got to the Impala. Dean unlocked it and sat inside, holding Cas protectively around the waist.

"Hey. Guess who." Dean kind of felt like an idiot talking to his car, but laughed aloud as the headlights flicked on and Baby was so excited the radio blasted a scramble of loud noises as the dial flipped out, the orange line showing the channel wagging from side to side. It almost reminded Dean of Grace whipping her tail back and forth.

"Maybe we'll start driving lessons soon, Cas." Dean said, cradling his face and bringing his lips to his once again. "I missed you so much."

And then Cas pushed Dean onto his back, and Dean kissed him some more before he reached out and fumbled with the angel's belt. "Well, we just had some freaky angel mojo soul sex, so I think it's time for the human stuff, what do you say?" Dean pulled the belt through all the loops with a swift zip. "I've been keeping some lube in the glovebox just for you, Cas." He fumbled with the button, when-

 _BEEEEEEEEP_!

"Hey. You said no sex in the  _back_  seat. You never said anything about the front." Dean said snarkily.

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-

"Dean, I don't think this is a good idea." Cas looked a little embarrassed as he scrubbed the back of his messy head of hair and straightened up.

-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!

The single beep stopped, only to be immediately replaced with a piercing car alarm.

WEOWEOWEOWEOWEOWEO WRRRR WRRRR WRRRR WRRRRR WA! WA! WA! WA! WEEEO WEEEEEO WEEEEO WEEEEO!

"Jesus! Dude, shut up, I was joking!" Dean rolled his eyes with a smile and sat up too. The alarm finally cut off abruptly.

"Cockblocker." Dean smirked, starting to scoot out of the car as Cas did the same. Dean could have sworn he felt the seat kick a little under his leg, as if trying to boot him out.

He and Cas chuckled like teenagers after their first teepee and sprinted hand in hand back to the bunker. The headlights shut off and the car seemed to sink a little further to the floor in a small, relieved sigh.

And the bunker was filled with the aroma of a chicken and potato soup, as Dean closed his eyes and fell back asleep, Cas's wing stretched over his body once again.

Kevin clacked away at the computer at the living room table, Sam tasted the soup, added some more salt and stirred.

Grace pushed under the table and curled up at Kevin's feet, resting her muzzle over Kevin's bare toes which were peeping out from new sweats. Kevin laughed as they tickled, slid his feet away and scratched her behind the ear.

And the Impala was parked outside, just where he should be.

 

 

**THE END**


End file.
